The history of Ireland, : from the treaty of Limerick to the present time: being a continuation of the history of the Abbe MacGeoghegan.

Oh ! Ireland, my country, the hour of thy pride and splendour hath passed.

The chain that was spurned in thy inor tents of puwc.'- hangs heavy aii-uml thee
ui last ;

Tlion ar1t chained to the wheel of the foe by links which a world cannot se . er, .
With thy tyrant through storm and through cloud thou shalt go; and thy sentence
is bondage for ever. — Aubrey De Vere.

GLASGOW: CAMERON &o^ERCUSUN

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ISC I Li 60
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015

https://archive.org/details/historyofireland01mitc_1

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J'Ur.LISIIERS' PREFACE.

Mr iNIitcliel’s rrefacc not having yet arrived from America, we shall be
obliged to issue it with Vol. 2, or supply it by itself, as we may consider best.

A\'e have left out, at Mr MitcheVs request, an incorrect Index, which is
published in other Editions. IMr Mitchcl says in his letter to us — “ 1 beg you
to omit the Index at the end, which was prepared by some printer, and is a
hlemish to the hook. The table of contents and headings of chapters, prepared
by myself, arc the best and only Index.”

THE

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

I KOM TirE

TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE PRESENT TIME:

BEINO

A CONTINUATION

OF THE

HISTORY OF THE ABBE MACGEOGHEGAN.

COMl’It.EO BY

JOHN MITCHEL.

GLASGOW:

CAMERON '& FERGUSON 88 WEST NILE STREET.

LONDON: CHARLES GRIFFIN & CO.

MDCCCLXIX.

AGS

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INTRODUCTION

In preparing a Continuation of tire valiial^le History of Ireland by
tlie Abbe MacCeogliegan, the compiler lias aimed only to reduce and
condense into a coherent narrative the materials ■which exist in abun-
dance in a great number of publications of every date within the period
included in the Continuation.

That period of a century and a-half embraces a series of deeply in-
teresting events in the annals of our country — the deliberate Breach of
the Treaty of Limerick — the long series of Penal Laws — the exile of the
Irish soldiery to France — their achievements in the French and other
services — the career of Dean Swift — the origin of a Colonial ISTationality
among the English of Ireland — the Agitations of Lucas — the Y ohinteer-
ing — the Declaration of Independence — the history of the Inde})endent
Irish Parliament — the Plot to bring about the Union — the United Irish-
men— the Negotiations with France — the Insurrection of 1798 — the
French Expeditions to Ireland — the ‘‘Union” (so-called) — the decay
of Trade — the fraudulent Imposition of Debt upon Ireland — the Orange-
men—the beginning of O’ConneH’s power — the Veto Agitation — the
Catholic Association — Clare Election — Emancipation — the series of Fam-
ines— the Pepeal Agitation — the IMonster kleetings — the State Trials
— the Great Famine — the Death of O’Connell — the Irish Confederation
• — the fate of Smith O’Brien and his comrades — the Legislation of the
United Parliament for Ireland — Poor-Laws — National Education — the
Tenant-Bight Agitation — the present condition of the country, etc.

INTRODUCTION.

The mere enumeration of these principal heads of the narrative -will
show how very v»dde a field has had to be traversed in this Continuation ;
and wliat a large number of works — Memoirs, Correspondence — Pailia-
mentaiy Debates — Speeches and local histories must have been collected,
in order to produce a continuous story. There exist, indeed, some safe
and useful guides, in the works of writers who have treated special i>arts
or limited periods of the general History ; and the compiler has had no
scruple in making very large use of the collections of certain diligent
writers who may be said to have almost exhausted their respective parts
of the subject.

It may aid the reader wdio desires to make a more minute examination
of any part of the History, if we here set down the titles of the principal
works which have been used in preparing the present : Doctor John
Curry’s “ Historical Eeview of the Civil Wars,” and “ State of the Irish
Catholics” — Mr. Francis Plowden’s elaborate and conscientious “ His-
t^uical Eeview of the State of Ireland,” before the Union : — the same
author’s “History of Ireland” from the Union till 1810 — the Letters
and Pamphlets of Dean Swift — Harris’s “Life of William the Third” — ■
Arthur Toung’s “Tour in Ireland ” — the Irish “ Parliamentary Debates”
-Mr. Scully’s excellent “State of the Penal Laws” — Thomas
Macnevin’s “History of the Volunteers,” in the “Library of Ireland” — ■
Hardy’s “Life of Lord Charlemont” — the Four Series of Dr. Madden’s
collections on the “ Lives and Times of the Lmited Irishmen ” — Hay’s
“ History of the Eebellion in AVexford ” — the Eev. Mr. Gordon’s
“History of the Irish Eebellion” [the work of Sir Eichard Musgrave,
as being wholly untrustworthy, is purposely excluded] — The “ Papers
and Correspondence” of Lord Cornwallis — and of Lord Castlereagh ; —
the “ Memoirs of Miles Byrne, an Irish Exile in France,” and a French
officer of rank, lately deceased — the Lives and Speeches of Grattan and
( hirran — Sir Jonah Barrington’s “Eise and Fall of the Irish Nation ” —
Memoirs and Journals of Theobald Wolfe Tone — Eichard Lalor Shiel’s

INTRODUCTION.

Sketches of the Irish Bar” — Wyse’s History of the Catholic Associa-
tion”— O’ConneH’s Speeches and Debates in the United Parliament.

These are the chief authorities for aU the times previous to the
•Catholic Eelief Act. As to the sketch which follows, of transactions
still later, it would be obviously impossible to enumerate the multi-
farious authorities : but the speeches of O’Connell and of William Smith
O’Brien are still, for the Irish history of their own time, what the orations
of Grattan were for his ; and what the vivid writings of Swift were for the
earlier part of the eighteenth century. The newspapers and the Parlia-
mentary Blue Books also come in, as essential materials (though some-
times questionable) for this later period : and for the Kepeal Agitation,
the State Trials, the terrible scenes of the Famine, and the consequent
extirpation of millions of the Irish people, we have, without scruple,
made use (along with other materials) of the facts contained in “ The
Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps)” — excluding generally the inferences
and opinions of the vrriter, and his estimate of his contemporaiies.
Indeed, the reader will find in the present work very few opinions or
theories put forward at all; the genuine object of tlie writer being
simply to present a clear narrative of the events as they evolved them-
selves one out of the others.

Neither does this History need comment ; and indignant decla-
mation would but weaken the effect of the dreadful facts we shall liavc
to tell. If the writer has succeeded — as he has earnestly desired to do
—in arranging those facts in good order, and exhibiting the naked truth
concerning English domination since the Treaty of Limerick, as our
fathers saw it, and felt it; — if he has been enabled to picture, in some
<legree like life, the long agony of the Penal Days, when the pride of
the ancient Irish race was stung by daily, hourly humiliations, and
their passions goaded to madness by brutal oppression ; — and further, to
Xncture the still more destructive devastations perpetrated upon our
oountry in this enlightened nineteenth century; then it is hoped that

INTUODUCTION.

every reader Avill draw for himself such general conclusions as the facts^
will warrant, without any declamatory appeals to patriotic resentment,
or promptings to patriotic aspiration: — the conclusion, in short, that,
while England lives and flourishes, Ireland must die a daily death, and
suffer an endless martyrdom; and that if Irishmen are ever to enjoy
the rights of human beings, the British Empire must first perish.

As the learned Abb6 IMacGeoghegan was for many years a chaplain to
the Irish Brigade in France, and dedicated his work to that renowned
corps of exiles, whose dearest wish and prayer was always to encounter
and overthrow the British potver upon any field, it is presumed that
the venerable author would wish his tvork to be continued in the same
thoroughly Irish spirit which actuated his noble warrior-congregation
— and he would desire the dark record of the English atrocity in Ire-
land, which he left unfinished, to be daily brought down through all its
subsequent scenes of horror and slaughter, which have been still more
terrible after his day than they were before. And this is what tlie.
present Continuation professes to do.

J. j\r.

CONTENTS

OIIAPTEB I. Ps;e

niOM THE TREATY OP LIMERICK TO THE END OF 1C91.

Treaty of Limerick — Violated or not?--Arouments of Macaulay— Doctor Doppincr,
liishop of Meath — No faith to be kept with Papists— First Act in violation of the

treaty— Situation of the Catholics — Char<ie a<;ainst Sarsfield lo

CHAPTER IL— 1G92-1G93.

William III. not bigoted — Practical toleration for four years — First Parliament in this
reii> n —Catholics excluded by a resolution — Extinction of civil existence for Catholics
— Irish Protestant Nationality — Massacre of Glencoe — Battle of Steinkirk — Court

of St. Germains — “ Declaration ’’—Battle of Landen, and death of Sarafield 18

CHAPTER III.-1G9.3-1G9S.

Capel, Lord-Lieutenant — War in the Netherlands— Capture of Namur — Grievances of the
Protest Hit colonists — Act for disarming Papists — Laws against education —Against
priests— Against intermarrying with Papists— Act to “ confirm ” Articles of Limerick

— Irish on the Continent 23

CHAPTER IY.-1G98-1702.

Predominance of the English Parliament — Molyneux — Decisive action of the English
Parliament — Court and country parties — Suppression of woollen manufacture — Com-
mission of confiscated e-tates — Its revelations — Vexation of King William— Peace of

Ryswick — Act for establishing the Protestant succession — Death of William 27

CHAPTER V.-1702-1704.

Queen Anne — ^Rochester, Lord-Lieutenant- Ormond, Lord-Lieutenant— War on the
Continent- Successes under Mai Iborough— Second fonral breach of the Pheaty of
Limerick — Bill to prevent the further grow’th of Popery- Clause against the Dis-
senters—Catholic lawyers heard against the bill — Pleading of Sir Toby Butler— Bill
passed — Object of the penal laws— To get hold of the property of Catholics — Recall

of the Edict of Nantes — Irish on the Continent — Cremona 31

CHAPTER VI.- 1701-1714.

Enforcement of the Penal Laws — Making informers honourable— Pembroke, Lord-Lieu-
tenant—Union of England and Scotland — Means by which it was carried — Irish
House of Lords in favour of an Union — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells —
Catholics excluded from J uries— Wharton Lord-Lieutenant — Second act to prevent
growth of Popery— Rewards for “ discoverers ” — Jonathan Swift— Nature of his Irish
Patriotism — Papists the “ common enemy ” — The Dissenters — Colony of the Pala-
tines—Disasters of the French, and Peace of Utrecht— The “Pretender” 42

CHAPTER VIE- 1714-1 723.

George I. — James III.— Perils of Dean Swift — Tories dismissed — Ormond, Oxford, and
Bolingbroke impeached — Insurrection in Scotland — Calm in Ireland — Arrests — Irish
Parliament — “Loyalty of the Catholics” — “No Catholics exist in Ireland ’’—Priest-
catchers — Bolton, Lord-Lieutenant — Cause of Sherlock and Annesley — Conflict of
juiisdiction — Declaratory act establishing dependence of the Irish Parliament —
Swift’s pamphlet — State of the country — Grafton, Lord-Lieutenant — Courage of the

priests — Atrocious Bill 48

CHAPTER VIII. -1723-1727.

Swift and Wood’s Copper — Drapier’s Letters— Claim of Independence — Primate Boulter
— Swift popular with the Catholics — His feeling towards Catholics — Desolation of
the Country — Rack-rents— Absenteeism — Creai Distress — Swift’s modest proposal —

Death of George I 55

CHAPTER IX.— 1727-1741.

Lord Carteret, Lord-Lieutenant — Primate Boulter ruler of Ireland — His policy — Catholic
Address — Not noticed — Papists deprived of elective franchise — Insolence of the
“Ascendency” — Famine — Emigration — Dorset, Lord-Lieutenant — Agitation of Dis-
senters— Sacramental Test — Swift's virulence against the Dissenters — Boulter's
policy to extirpate Papists — Rage against the Catholics — Debates on money bills —
“Patriot Party” — Duke of Devonshire, Lord-Lieutenant — Corruption — Another

famine — Berkeley — English commercial policy in Ireland 50

CHAPTER X.-1741-1745.

War on the Continent —Doctor Lucas — Primate Stone — Battle of Dettingen — Lally —

Fontenoy — The Irish Brigade GG

CHAPTER XL— 1745-1753.

Alarm in England — Expedition of Prince Charles Edward — “A Message of Peace to
Ireland ” — Viceroyalty of Chesterfield — Temporary toleration of the Catholics —
Berkeley— The Scottish Insurrection — Cuiloden—“ Loyalty ” of the Irish — Lucas and
the Patriots - Debates on the Supplies — Boyle and Malone —Population of Ireland... 71

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII. — 1753-17G0. Page

Unpopularity of the Duke of Dorset — Earl of Kildare — His address — Patriots in power —
Pension List — Duke of Bedford, Lord-Lieutenant — Case of Saul — Catholic meetin;; in
Dublin — Commencement of Catholic a^ritation — Address of the Catholics received —
First recognition of the Catholics as subjects — Lucasian mobs — Project of Union —
Thurot’s expedition — Death of Georp;e II.— Population — Distress of the country —
Operation of the Penal Laws — The Oeoghesans — Catholic Petition — Berkeley’s Qatrist 77
CHAPTER XIII.— 17G0- 1762.

Georse III. — Speech from the Throne — “ Toleration” — France and England in India —
Tally’s campai<;n there— State of Ireland — The Revenue — Distress of Trade — Dis-
tress in the Country — Oppression of the Farmers — White Boys — Riots — “ A Popish
Conspiracy Steel-Boys and Oak-Boys — Emi<;ration from Ulster — Halifax, Viceroy
— Flood and the Patriots — Extravagance and Corruption —Agitation for Septennial

Parliaments 87

CHAPTER XIV.-1762-17G8.

Tory 2-Iinistry — Failures of the Patriots — Northumberland, Viceroy — Wr. Fitzgerald’s
speech on Pension List — .Mr. Perry’s address on same subject— Effort for mitigation
of the Penal Laws — Mr. Mason’s argument for allowing Papists to take mortgages —
Rejected — Death of Stone and Earl of Shannon — Lord Hartford, Viceroy— Lucas and
the Patriots — Their continued failures — Increase of National Debt — Townshend,
Viceroy— New system — The “ Undertakers ’’—Septennial bill changed into Octennial
— And passed— Moy of the people — Consequences of this measure — Ireland still
“standing on her smaller end’ — Newspapers of Dublin— Grattan 92

CHAPTER XV.-1762-17G7.

Pveign of Terror in Munster —Murder of Father Sheehy— “ Toleration,” under the House
of Hanover — Precarious condition of Catholic clergy— Primates in hiding — Working
of the Penal Laws— Testimony of Arthur Young. 99

CHAPTER XVI. -1767-1773.

Townshend, Viceroy — Augmentation of the army-Embezzlement- Parliament pro-
rogued—Again prorogued — Townshend buys his majority— Triumph of the “ English
Interest” — New attempt to bribe the priests — Townshend’s “Golden Drops” — Bill
to allow Papists to reclaim bogs — Townshend recalled — Harcourt, Viceroy — Pro-
posal to tax absentees — Defeated — Degraded condition of the Irish Parliament —
American revolution, and new era lOG

CHAPTER XVII.— 1774-1777.

American affairs — Comparison between Ireland and the Colonies — Contagion of Ameri-
can opinions in Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics — Congress at Phila-
delphia— Address of Congress to Ireland — Encouragement to Fisheries — Four thou-
sand “ armed negotiators ” — Financial distre.ss- First Octennial Parliament dissolved

— Grattan — Lord Buckingham, Viceroy — Successes of the Americans 112

CHAPTER XVIIL— 1777-1779.

Buckingham, Viceroy — Misery, and Decline of Trade — Discipline of Government Sup-
porters— Lord North's first measure in favour of Catholics — Passed in England —
Opposed in Ireland — What it amounted to — Militia bill- The Volunteers — Defence-
less state of the country — Loyalty of the Volunteers — Their uniforms — Volunteers
Protestant at first — Catholics desirous to join— Volunteers get the Militia arms —

Their aims — Military system — Numbers in 17S0 117

CHAPTER XIX.— 1779-1780.

Free Trade and Free Parliament— Meaning of “Free Trade” — Non-importation agree-
ments—Rage of the English — Grattan’s motion for free trade — Hussev Burgh —
Thanks to the Volunteers — Parade in Dublin — Lord North yields — Free Trade act —
Next step— Mutiny bill— The 19th of April — Declaration of Right — Defeated in Par-
liament, but successful in the country — General determination — Organizing — .Irming

— Reviews — Charlemont— Briberies of Buckingham — Carlisle, Viceroy 124

CHAPTER XX.— 1781-1782

Parliament — Thanks to the Volunteers — Habeas Corpus — Trade with Portugal— Grat-
tan’s financial expose — Gardiner's measure for Catholic relief— Dungannon— The
loth of February, 1782 — Debates on Gardiner’s bill — Grattan’s speech — Details of
this measure — Burke’s opinion of it — Address to the King asserting Irish indepen-
dence— England yields at once — Act repealing the Gth George I. — Repeal of Poynings’

law — Irish independence 134

CHAPTER XXL— 1783-1784.

Effects of independence — Settlement not final — English plots for the Union — Corruption
of Irish Parliament— Enmity of Flood and Grattan — Question between them — Re-
nuoci tion act— Second Dungannon Convention - Convention of delegates in Dublin
—Catholics excluded from all civil rights— Lord Kenmare— Lord Kenmare disavowed
— Lord Temple— Knights of St. Patrick — Portland, Viceroy — Judicature bill — Habeas
Corpus — Bank of Ireland — Repeal of Test Act— Proceedir.:>-s of Convention — Flood’s
Reform Bill — Rejected— Convention dissolved— End of the Volunteers — Militia 146

CONTENTS.

xi

CHArTEIl XXII.-1784-178G. ^ _ Page

Improvement of the country — Political position anomalous — Rutland, Viceroy— Petitions
/or Parliamentary Reform — Flood’s motion — Rejected — Grattan’s bill to regulate the
revenue — Protective duties demanded— National Congress — Dissensions as to rights
of Catholics — Charlemont’s intolerance— Orde’s commercial propositions — New pro-
positions of Mr. Pitt— Burke and Sheridan — Commercial propositions defeated —

Mr. Conolly — The national debt— General corruption— Court majorities— Patriots

defeated— Ireland after five years of independence 159

CHAPTER XXIII.— 1787— 1789.

Alarms and rumours of disturbances — Got up by Government — Act against illegal com-
binations— Mr. Grattan on tithes— Failure of his efforts — Death of Duke of Rutland
• — Marquis of Buckingham, Viceroy — Independence of Mr. Curran — Mr. Forbes and
the pension list — Failure of his motion — Triumph of corruption — Troubles in
Armagh County— “ Peep of Day Boys”— “ Defenders” — Insanity of the King — The

Regency 1C7

CHAPTER XXIV.— 1789.

Unpopularity of Buckingham — Formation of an Irish character — Efforts of Patriots in
Parliament — All in vain — Purchasing votes — Corruption— Whig Club— Lord Clare
on Whig Club — Buckingham leaves Ireland — Pension list — Peep of Day Boys and
Defenders — Westmoreland, Viceroy — Unavailing efforts against corruption — Material

prosperity— King William’s birthday — French Revolution 177

CHAPTER XXV.— 1790-1791.

New election— New peers — Sale of peerages— Motion against Police bill — Continual
defeats of Patriots — Insolence of the Castle— Progress of French Revolution— Horror
of French principles — Burke — Divisions amongst Irish Catholics — Wolfe Tone-
General Committee of Catholics — Tone goes to Belfast — Establishes first United
Irish Club— Parliamentary Patriots avoid them — Progress of Catholic Committee —

Project of a Convention — Troubles in County Armagh 18G

CHAPTER XXVI.— 1791-1792.

Principles of United Irish Society — Test— Addresses — Meeting of Parliament— Catholic
relief— Trifling measure of that kind — Petition of the Catholics— Rejected— Steady
majority of two-thirds for the Castle— Placeholding members— Violent agitation
upon the Catholic claims — Questions put to Catholic Universities of the Continent —
Their answers — Opposition to project of Convention — Catholic question in the Whig

Club — Catholic Convention in Dublin — National Guard 197

CHAPTER XXVIE- 1792- 1793.

The Catholic Convention — Reconciliation of differences amongst the Catholics — Their
deputation to the King — Successes of the French fortunate for the Catholics — Du-
mouriez and Jemappes — iiracious reception of the Catholic deputation — Belfast
mob draw the carriage of Catholic delegates — Secret Committee of the Lords —
Report on Defenders and United Irishmen —Attempt of Committee to connect the
two — Lord Clare creates “ alarm among the better classes ’’—Proclamation against
unlawful assemblies- Lord Edward Fitzgerald — French Republic declares war
against England— Large measure of Catliolic relief immediately proposed — Moved
by Secretary Hobart — Act carried — Its provisions — What it yields, and what it
withholds — Arms and Gunpowder Act— Act against conventions — Lord Clare the
real author of British policy in Ireland as now established — Effect and intention of
the “Convention Act” — No such law in England — IMilitia bill — Catholic Committee

— No reform -Close of session 205

CHAPTER XX VIII.— 1793-1795.

Small results of Catholic Relief Bill — Distinctions still kept up —Excitement against the
Catholics— Trials of Defenders — Packing juries— Progress of United Irishism —
Opposed by Catholic Bishops — Arrests of Bond and Butler — Prosecution of A.
Hamilton Rowan — Last effort fur Parliamentary Reform — Defeated — United Irish
meeting in Dublin dispersed by the police — Rev. William Jackson and Wolfe Tone
— Rowan charged with treason — Rowan escapes -Tone allowed to quit the country
— Vow of the Cave Hill — Fitzwilliam’s administration— Fitzwilliam deceived by
Pitt - Dismissal of Mr. Beresford — Plan of Mr. Pitt - Insurrection first — “ Union ”
afterwards — Fitz william recalled — Great despondency — “ The Orangemen ’’—Be-
ginning of coercion and anarchy 211

CHAPTER XXIX.— 1793-1797.

“To Hell or Connaught” — “Vigour beyond the Law”— Lord Carhampton’s Vigour —
Insurreccion Act — Indemnity Act— The latter an invitation to Magistrates to break
• the law — Mr. Grattan on Orangemen — His resolution — The Acts passed — Opposed
by Grattan, Parsons, and Lord Edward h itzgerald — Insurrection Act destroys
Liberty of the Press — Suspension of Habeas Corpus — U. I. Society — New members
— Lord E. Fitzgerald -MacNeven — Emmet — Wolfe Tone at Paris — His Journal —
Clarke — Carnot — Hoche —Bantry Bay Expedition — Account of, in Tone’s Journal —
Fleet Anchors in Bantry Bay— Account of the affair by Secret Committee of the
Lords — Government fully informed of all the projects 223

XU

CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER XXX. -1797. Tagfr

Reign of Terror in Armagh County— No Orangemen ever Punished — “Defenders” called
"P>anditti Faulkner’s Journal,” Organ of the Castle— Cheers on the Orangemen —

Mr. Curran’s Statement of the Havoc in Armagh— Increased Rancour against
Catholics and U. I. after the Bantry Bay Affair — Efforts of Patriots to Establish
Permanent Armed Force — Opposed by Government— And why — Proclamation of
Counties — Bank ordered to Suspend Specie Payments — Alarm —Dr. Duiirenan —
Secession from Parliament of Grattan, Curran, Ac. —General Lake in the North-
“Northern Star”— Office wrecked by Troops — Proclamation — Outrages in the year
1797 —Salutary Effect of the United Irish System on the Peace of the Country —
Armagh Assizes — Slanderous Report of a Secret Committee — Good Effects of United

Irishism in the South— Miles Byrne— Wexford County 237

CHAPTER XXXL-1797-1793.

VJolfe Tone’s Negotiations in France and Holland — Lewins— Expedition of Dutch
Government destined for Ireland— Tone at theTexel — His Journal — Tone’s Uneasiness
about Admitting Foreign Dominion over Ireland — MacNeven’s Memoir — Discussion
as to Proper Point for Landing — Tone on Board the Vryheid — Adverse Winds —
Rage and Impatience of Tone — Disastrous Fate of the Batavian Expedition — Cam-
perdown 247

chapter XXXII.— 1798.

Spies — Secret Service Mone}’ — Press Prosecution — “Remember Orr ! ” — Account of Orr
— Curran’s Speech — His Description of Informers — Arts of Government — Sowing
Dissensions — Forged Assassination List — “Union” — Declines — Addresses of
“Loyalty” — Maynooth Grant Enlarged — Catholic Bishops “Loyal” — Forcing a
“Premature Explosion ’’ — Camden and Carhampton — Outrages on the People, to
Force Insurrection — Testimony of Lord IMoira — Inquiry Demanded in Parliament —
Repulsed and Defeated by Clare and Castlereauh — Insolence and LTnlimited Power
of Minister’s — General Abercrombie Resicrns — Remarkable General Order — Pelham
Quits Ireland — Castlereagh’s Secretary— The Hessians’s Free Quarters — The Ancient
Britons — Proclamation of Martial Law — Grattan’s Picture of the Tiroes — Horrible
Atrocities in Wexford — Massacres — The Orangemen — Their Address of Loyalty —

All these Outrages before any Insurrection 255

CHAPTER XXXIIL— 1798.

Reynolds the Informer — Arrests of U. I. Chiefs in Dublin — The Brothers Sheares —
Their Efforts to Delay Explosion — Clare and Castlereagh Resolve to Hurry it —
Advance of the Military — Half-Hanging— Pitch Caps — Scourging Judkin Fitzgerald
— Sir John Moore’s Testimony — His Disiiust at the Atrocities — General Napier’s
Testimony — Catholic Bishops and Peers Profess their “ Loyalty ’’—Armstrong, In-
former— Arrest of the Sheares — Airest and de ath of Lord Edward — Mr. Emmet’s
Evidence before Secret Committee — Insurrection Breaks Out — The 23rd of May —
Naas — Prosperous — Kilcullen — Proclamation of Lake — Of the Lord Mayor of
Dublin — Skirmishes at Carlow — Hacketstown, Ac. — Insurgents have the Advantage
at Dunbcyne — Attack on Carlow — Executions — Sir E. Crosbie — Massacre at Gibbet
Rath of Kildare — Slaughter on Tara Hill — Suppression of Insurrection in Kildare,

Du!)lin and iMeath 269

CHAPTER XXX1V.-1798.

Vrexford a Peaceable County — Lord Castiereagli’s Judicious Pleasures- Catholics Driven
out of Yeomanry Corps — Treatment of Mr. Fitzgerald— United Irish in Wexford —

The Priests Oppose that Society— How they were Requited — Miles Byrne — Torture
in Wexford — Orangemen in Wexford — North Cork Militia — Hay’s Account of the
Ferocity of the Magistrates— Massacre of Carnew — Father John Murphy— Burning
of his Chape! — Miles Byrne’s Account of First Rising — Oulard — Storm of Ennis-
corthy— Wexford Evacuated by the King's Troops— Occupied by Insurgents — All the
County now in Insurrection— Estimated Numbers of Insurgents— Population of the

County 282

CHAPTER XXXV.— 1798.

Camp on Vinegar Hill — Actions at Ballycannoo— .At Newtownbarry — Tubberneering —

Fall of wVlpole — Two Columns— Bagenal Harvey Commands Insurgents — Summons
New Ross to Surrender- Battle of New Ross — Slaugliter of Prisoners — Retaliation
— Scullabogue — Bagenal Harvey Shocked by Aff'air of Scullabogue Ke.>igns Com-
mand— Father Philip Roche, General — Fight at Arklow — Claimed as a Victory by
King’s Troops— Account of it by Miles Byrne — The Insurgents Execute some
Loyalists in Wexford Town —Dixon — Retaliation —Proclamation by “ People of
Wexford” — Lord Kingsborongh a Prisoner —Troops Concentrated round Vineear
Hill— Battle of Vinegar Hill — Enniscorthy and Wexford Recovered —Military
Executions — Ravage of the Country — Chiefs Executed in Wexford Treatment of
Women — Outrages in the Nortli of the County— Fate of Father John .Murphy’s
Column — Of Antony Perry’s — Combat at Ballyellis — Miles Byrne's .Account of it —
Extermination of Ancient Britons — Character of Wexford Insurrection — Got up by
the Government 290

HISTORY OF IRELAND

CHAPTER I.

niOM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE
END OF 1G91.

Treaty of Limerick. — Violated or not ? — Arguments
of Macaulay. — Dr. Dopping, Bishop of Meath. —
No faith to be kept with Papists. — First act in
violation of the treaty.— Situation of the Catholics.
— Charge against Sarsfield.

The Articles of Limerick were signed
on the 3rd October, 1G91, and the city was
surrendered to the army of King William,
who was then, for the first time, recog-
nised by the body of the Irish nation as
King of Ireland : and when the Irish
forces, who had held Limerick and Gal-
Avay so gallantly, Avere shipped off to
Prance, pursuant to the capitulation,
there was not left in all Ireland the
slightest semblance of any power capable
of resisting or troubling the neiv settle-
ment of the kingdom. The timely sur-
render had also enabled William to bring
to a close this most troublesome and
costly Avar, at a moment Avhen it Avas
urgently needful for him to concentrate
all his force against the great poAV'er of
Prance.

It is therefore evident, and has ahvays
been admitted, that in return for the en-
gagements of the treaty purporting to
]>rotect Catholic rights, the king and the
English colonists receiAvd most Auiluable
consideration. “In Ireland there AV'as
jicace : the domination of the colonists
Avas absolute.” These are the Avords of
Lord Macaulay, Avho, of all modern his-
torians, has uniformly exhibited the most
inveterate malignity against the Irish
nation.

Before proceeding to narrate in detail
the manner in which tlie articles Avere
observed on the part of the king and the
dominant colony of English, it Avill be
Avell to exhibit some other facts proving
Avhat a very valuable consideration the
Catholics gaA*e for the poor guaranty they
thought they Avere receiving on their side.
At the beginning of October the winter
Avas closely approaching, and the army of
Ginkell aayts almost certain to be forced
to raise the siege on that account alone.

The same Macaulay, in his estimate of
the chances of Ginkell’s success, thus
sums them up —

“ Yet it was possible that an attempt to
storm the city might fail, as a similar at-
tempt had failed tAvelve months before.
If the siege should be turm;d into a block-
ade, it was probable that the pestilence
Avhich had been fatal to the army of
Schomberg, AAdiich had compelled William
to retreat, and Avhich had all but prevailed
even against the genius and energy of
Marlborough, might soon avenge the car-
nage of Aghrim. The rains had lately
been lieaA^y. The Aidiole plain might
shortly be an immense pool of stagnant
Avater. It might be necessary to move the
troops to a healthier situation than the
banks of the Shannon, and to provide for
them a Avarmer shelter than that of tents.
The enemy would be safe till the spring.
In the spring a Prencli army might land
in Ireland — the natives might again rise
in arms from Donegal to Kerry— and the
Av'ar, Avhich Avas noAv all but extinguished,
might blaze forth fiercer than ever.”

This historian, Avhose Avork enjoys much
more popularity than credit, does not
mention a circumstance Avhich made it, in
fact, certain that the Avar Avould soon have
blazed forth fiercer tlian ever, beyond all
doubt. It is that, before the signing of
those articles, assurances had been sent
from Prance to the defenders of Limerick
that a considerable expedition Av'as then
on its Avay to their aid, under command
of Chateau Renault ; Avhich re-enforce-
ment did actually arrive in Dingle Bay
two days after the treaty Avas signed,
“ consisting,” says Harris, in his Life of
King William, “ as appears from the
minutes of a letter from the lords-jus-tices
to the king, of eighteen ships of Avar, six
fire-ships, and twenty great ships of
burthen, and brought on board eiyht or
ten thousand arms, tAvo hundred officers,
and three thousand men.” Whether the
Irish commanders Av^ere or AA'ere not justi-
fied in surrendering a city Avhich they
Avere still capable of defending, and Aidiile
in daily expectation of so poAverful a suc-
cour, is a question Avhich need not here be
discussed. The sequel of the story aauU

14

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

show that they had soon cause to regret
not having held out to the last extremity,
though they should have been buried in
the ruins of their ancient city.

It was afterwards known, too, that
William was himself so sensible of the
necessity of finishing this struggle and
bringing his troops to re-enforce his army
on the continent, that he had sent instruc-
tions to the lords-justices to issue a pro-
clamation assuring the Irish of much more
favourable conditions than they after-
wards obtained by the Articles of Limer-
ick. And the justices actually framed
these instructions into a proclamation,
afterwards called the secret iwoclamation,
because, though printed, it was never pub-
lished ; for their lordships, learning that
the defenders of Limerick were offering
to capitulate, hastened to Ginkell’s camp,
that they might hold the Irish to as hard
terms as could possibly be wrung from
them. So that, as Lord Macaulay com-
placently observes, the Dutch general
‘‘ had about him persons who were com-
petent to direct him.”

In return for this fidl and final surren-
der of the last fortress which held for King
.lames, and of the whole cause of that
monarch, the Irish Catholic leaders stipu-
lated, it must be confessed, for but a poor
measure of civil and religious freedom,
’when they put their hands to the clause
engaging that “ The lioman Catholics of
this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges
in the exercise of their religion as are
consistent with the laws of Ireland ; or,
as they did enjoy in the reign of King
Charles the Second.” But it is probable
that, placing more reliance on the good
faith of King William than events after-
wards justified, they believed themselves
secured by the remaining words of that

article And their majesties, as soon

as their affairs wdU permit them to sum-
mon a i)arliament in this kingdom, will
endeavour to procure the said Roman
Catholics such further security in that
particular as may ])reserve them from any
disturbance upon the account of their said
religion,” All which was duly ratified by
their majesties’ letters-patent. Sarsfield
and Wauchop then, with their French
brother-officers, in marching out of Lim-
erick, thought that they w'ere leaving,
as a barrier against oppression of the
Catholics, at least the honour of a king.

The whole history of Ireland, from
that day until the year 1793, consists of
one long and continual breach of this
treaty.

But as there lias been, both among
Irish and English political writers, a great
deal of wild declamation and unwarranted

statement on this subject, it seems need-
ful to give a precise view of the real pur-
port and limitations of the engagements
taken towards the Irish Catholics upon
this occasion. Independently, then, of the
royal promise of future parliamentary re-
lief to “ protect Catholics from all dis-
turbance,” there was the general engage-
ment for such privileges to Catholics in
the exercise of their religion “ as were
consistent with the laws of Ireland ; or,
as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles
II.” And also the ninth article of the
treaty, that “ The oath to be administer-
ed to such Roman Catholics as submit to
their majesties’ government shall be the
oath above-mentioned (namely, the oath of
allegiance), and no other.” These pro
visions were applicable to all Catholics
living in any part of Ireland. Other articles
of the treaty, from the second to the eighth
inclusive, related only, first, to the people
of Limerick and other garrisons then held
by the Irish ; second, to officers and soldiers
then serving King James, in the counties
of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and
Mayo ; third, to “all such as were under
their protection in the said counties,”
meaning all the inhabitants of those coun-
ties. These three classes of persons were
to be secured their properties and their
rights, privileges, and immunities (as in
the reign of Charles the Second), and to-
be permited to exercise their several call-
ings as freely as Catholics were permitted
to do in that reign. We need not, at this
day, occupy ourselves at great length with
these latter specific stipulations ; but
attend to the general proviso in favour of
all Catholics. What, then, were the rights
of Catholics under King Charles the Sec-
ond ? — for this seems to be what is meant
by the other phrase, “consistent with the
laws of Ireland.”

Now, it is true that penal laws against
Catholic priests and Catholic worship did
exist in Ireland during the reign of
Charles the Second: Catholics, for ex-
ample, could not be members of a cor-
poration in Ireland, nor hold certain civil
offices in that reign. But there was no
law to prevent Catholic peers and commons
from sitting in parliament. There was also
in practice so general a toleration as allowed
Catholic lawyers and physicians to prac-
tise their professions. At the very lowest,
therefore, this practical toleration must
have been what the Catholics thought
they were stipulating for in the Articles
of Limerick. Neither did there exist in
the reign of Charles the Second that long
and sanguinary series of enactments con-
cerning education, the holding or land, the
owniirg of horses, and the like, which

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

15

■were elaborated by the ingenuity of more
modern chiefs of the Protestant Ascend-
ency. The first distinct breach of the
Articles Limerick was perpetrated by
King William and his parliament in Eng-
land, just two months after those Articles
were signed.

King William was in the Netherlands
when he heard of the surrender of Limerick,
and at once hastened to London. Three
days later he summoned a parliament.
Very early in the session the English
House of Commons, exercising its custom-
ary power of binding Ireland by acts passed
in London, sent up to the House of Lords
a bill providing that no person should sit
in the Irish parliament, nor sliould hold
any Irish office, civil, military, or eccle-
siastical, nor should practise law or medi-
cine in Ireland, till he had taken the oaths
of allegiance and supi-emac^, and subscribed
the declaration against tiaansubstantiation.
The law was passed, only reserving the
right of such laAvyers and physicians as
had been within the Avails of Gahvay and
Limerick AAdien those tOAvns capitulated.
And so it received the royal assent. This
laAv has given rise to keen debates ;
especially during the Catholic Eelief
Agitation ; the Catholics insisting that
disabilities imposed by laAv on account of
religion, are an invasion of those priviliges
in the exercise of their religion, Avhieh
purported to be secured by treaty ; the
Ascendency Party arguing that the first
article of the treaty meant only that Ca-
tholic Avorship should be tolerated. The
Catholics pointed out that by Article
Nine, only the oath of allegiance A\'as to
l)e imposed on them, Avhile this neAv laAv
recpiired those Avho should practise laAv or
sit in the House of Parliament, to take a
certain other oath, Avhich they could not
do Avithout perjuring themsehms. The
Ascendency Party replied that on taking
the oath of allegiance alone, Catholics Avere
tolerated in their loorsMp and that this Avas
all they had stipulated for ; that it still
belonged to the Legislature to prescribe
suitable formalities to be observed by those
Avho aspired to exercise a public trust or a
responsible profession. It is apparent
that on this principle of interpretation,
parliament might require the oath of sup-
remacy from a baker or a Avine merchant as
Avell as from a laAvyer and doctor, and then
it Avould be laAvful for a Catholic to go and
hear Mass, but it Avould be laAvful for him
to do nothing else. As might be expected,
the Baron Macaulay takes the Ascendency
vicAv of the question, as Avill appear from
this specimen of his reasoning.

“The champions of Protestant Ascend-
ency Avere Avell pleased to see the debate I

diA'erted from a political question about
Avdiich they AA^ere in the Avrong, to a histori-
cal question about Avhich they Avere in the
right. They had no difficulty in proving
that the first article, as understood by all
the contracting parties, meant only tliat
the Roman Catholic Avorship should be
tolerated as in time past. That article Avas
draAvn up by Ginkell ; and just before he
dreAv it up, he had declared that he avouH
rather try the chance of arms than consent
that Irish Papists should be capable of
holding civil and military offices, of exer-
cising liberal professions, and of becoming
members of municipal corporations. Hoav
is it possible to believe that he Avould of
his OAvn accord, have promised that the
House of Lords and the House of Com-
mons sliould be open to men to AAdiom he
Avould not open a guild of skinners or a
guild of cordAvainers? HoA\g again, is it
possible to belieA-e that the English peers
Avould, Avhile professing the most jAunc-
tilious respect for public faith, Avhile lec-
turing the Commons on the duty of ob-
serAung public faith, Avhile taking counsel
Avith the most learned and upright jurist
of the age as to the best mode of main-
taining public faith, have committed a
flagrant violation of public faith, and that
not a single lord should have been so
honest or so factious as to protest against
an act of monstrous perfidy aggravated
by hypocrisy ?”

Whereupon it may be remarked that
mere toleration of Catholic Avorship Avas
not understood by all the contracting par-
ties, as being all AA'hich AA^as meant by tlie
treaty, inasmuch as many Catholic peers
and commons did attend in their places in
the Irish parliament the very next year
after this laAv aaus passed in London ; and
the slavish Irish parliament then, for tho
first time, excluded them by resolutions in
obedience to the hiAV enacted in the Eng-
lish Houses. As for the argument Avhich
seems intended to be conA'eyed in the
string of questions contained in the aboA'e
extract, AAm ansAA'er that “ it is possil)le to
believe” almost anything of the men and
the times Ave are hoav discussing ; and
that this narrative Avill tell of many other
things Avhich Avill seem impossible to be-
lieve, and Avhich any good man AA'ould
Avisli it AA'cre impossible to believe.

Macaulay, indeed, before quitting this
question, does admit, as it AA’ere incidently,
and in the obscurity of a note, that al-
though the Treaty of Limerick Avas not
broken at that particular moment, nor by
that particular statute of the 3rd William
and Mary, c. 2, yet, “ The Irish Roman
Catholics complained, and Avith but too
much reason, that at a later period the

IG

IllSTOiiY OF lUELANO.

Treaty of Limerick teas violated.” And
it is remarkable that this historian en-
deavours to sustain his position by the
authority of the Abbe MacGeoghegan.
He says, “ The Abbe iMacGeoghegan com-
plains that the treat}^ was violated some
years after it was made, but he does not
pretend that it was violated by Statute ilrd,
William and Mary, c. 2.” This is ex-
tremely uncandid. The Abbe MacGeo-
ghegan did not profess to continue his
Histor}'’ of Ireland beyond the Treaty of
Limerick; before quitting his subject,
however, the venerable author does inci-
dentally mention that this treaty was af-
terwards violated by many statutes, which
it was nothis province to arrange in chro-
nological order ; and after noticing some
of the hardships thus inflicted upon the
Irish people, he adds ; “ By other acts, the
Irish nobility were deprived of their arms
and horses ; they were debarred from pur-
chasing land, from becoming members of
the bar, or filling any public office ; and,
contrary to the ninth article of the treaty,
they were made subject to infamous
oaths.”*

Notwithstanding the very slender con-
cessions which were apparently granted
to the Catholic people by this memorable
treaty, however, the Protestant English
colony in Ireland was immediately agi-
tated by the bitterest indignation against
both the general and the lords-justices.
They thought the Irish entitled to no
articles or conditions but Adiat would ex
pose them to the severest rigours of war ;
and the “ Protestant Interest,” and “ As-
cendency” thought themselves defrauded
of a legitimate vengeance, to say nothing
of their natural expectations of plunder ;
a most unfounded apprehension, as will
presently appear.

After the conclusion of the treaty, the
lords-justices returned to Dublin ; and on
the following Sunday attended service in
Christ Church Cathedral. The preacher
was Doctor Dopping, bishop of ISEeath ;
and he took for the subject of his sermon
the late important events at Limerick.
He argued that no terms of peace ought
to be observed with so perfidious a people ;f
a fact which, if it were not notorious and
well-attested, might seem incredible;
seeing that one of the worst charges
brought against the Catholics at that
period was that they taught that faith was
not to be kept with heretics. The doc-
trine of the Bishop of Meath, however,
was not approved by all the divines of his
party, for on the next Sunday, in the same
church. Doctor IMoreton, bishop of Kil-

* See page 013 of SacUier’s Edition,
f Ilarrio S Life of King William.

dare, demonstrated the obligation of
keeping public faith. It seems that this
important question greatly occupied men's
minds at that time; for it was judged
necessary to settle and quiet public
opinion; and to this end, on the third
Sunday, in the same church, Dean Synge
preached a conciliatory sort of discourse,
neither absolutely insisting on observing
the treaty, nor distinctly advising that it
should be broken. His text was, “ Keep
peace with all men, if it be possible.” After
this we hear no more of any discussions
of the grand controversy in the pulpit ;
but in Barliament and in Council the
difference subsisted, until the English
Act of Resumption of Estates quieted the
disputants, who then saw they lost nothing
by the articles, as the Catholics gained
nothing.

While these debates were proceeding in
Dublin, the Protestant magistrates and
sheriffs had no doubt upon the point,
whether faith was to be kept with Catho-
lics or not ; they universally decided in
the negative ; and in less than two months
after the capitulation was confirmed by
the king, as we learn on the authority of
William’s own partial biographer, Harris,

the justices of peace, sheriffs, and other
magistrates, presuming on their power in
the country, did, in an illegal manner,
dispossess several of their majesties’ sub-
jects, not only of their goods snd chattels,
but of their lands and tenements, to the
great disturbance of the peace of the king-
dom, subversion of the law, and reproach
of their majesties’ government.” It is a
much heavier reproach to their majesties’
government that no person appears to have
been prosecuted, nor in any way brought
to justice for these outrageous oppressions.
It appears by a letter of the lords-justices
of the 19th November, 1691 (six weeks
after the surrender of Limerick), “that
their lordships had received complaints
from all parts of Ireland of the ill-treat-
ment of the Irish who had submitted, had
their majesties’ protection, or were in-
cluded in articles ; and that they were so
extremely terrified with apprehensions of
the continuance of that usage, that some
thousands of them tvho had quitted the
Irish army, and had gone home with a
resolution not to go for Erance, were then
come back again [come back, it is pre-
sumed, to Cork, Limerick, and other sea-
ports], and pressed earnestly to go thither,
rather than stay in Ireland, Avhere, con-
trary to the })ublic faith (add these jus-
tices), as well as law and justice, they
were robbed of tlieir substance and abused
in their persons.” But, still no effectual
means were used by the government for

IIISTOllY OF IKELAND.

17

repressing such wrong ; so that we may
well adopt the language of Dr. Curry,
that these representations made by the
lords-justices were only a “iwetence.”
Indeed, Harris affirms, and every state-
ment of this nature made by Harris is an
unwilling admission, that Capel, one of
these very lords-justices, did, shortly
after, proceed as far as it was in his power,
to infringe the Articles of Limerick,

The prospect which now opened before
the Catholics of Ireland was gloomy in-
deed. Already tliey were made to feel in
a thousand forms all the bitterness of sub-
jugation, and to perceive that in this reign
of "King William, so vaunted for its liber-
ality, the blessings and liberties of the
British Constitution, if any such there
were, existed not for them ; that they had
no security for even such remnants of
property as had been left them, no redress
by the laws of the land, and no refuge
from their enemies even in the pledged
faith of a solemn treaty. Yet we have
only arrived at the beginning of the sys-
tem of grinding oppression which was
soon to be j)ut in operation against them.
This preliminary chapter is devoted to an
account of the immediate breaches of the
Articles of Limerick which were perpe-
trated within the three months after their
signature. We are next to trace the de-
velopment of that great code of Penal
Laws, which Dr. Samuel Johnson de-
scribed as more grievous than all the Ten
Pagan persecutions of the Christians.

Before tinishing this chapter, it is
proper to allude to one other instance
of the determined mendacity of Baron
Macaulay. Bespecting the embarkation of
Sarsfield and the Irish troops from Cork,
that historian compiles from several
sources the following narrative :

“ Sarsfield perceived that one chief
cause of the desertion which was thinning
his army was the natural iinwillingness of
the men to leave their families in a state
of destitution. Cork and its neighbour-
hood Avere filled with the kindred of those
Avlio were going abroad. Great numbers
of women, many of them leading, carry-
ing, suckling their infants, covered all the
roads AAdiich led to the place of embarka-
tion. The Irish general, apprehensive of
the effect which the entreaties and lamen-
tations of these poor creatures could not
fail to produce, put forth a proclamation,
in which he assured his soldiers that they
should be i)ermitted to carry their wives
and families to France. It Avould be in-
jurious to the memory of so brave and
loyal a gentleman to suppose that Avhen
he made this promise he meant to break it.
It is much more probable that he had

formed an erroneous estimate of the num-
ber of those aaLo Avould demand a passage,
and that he found himself, Avhen it was
too late to alter his arrangements, finable
to keep his word. After the soldiers had
embarked, room was found for the families
of many. But still there remained on the
Avater-side a great multitude, clamoring
piteously to be taken on board. As the
last boats put off there Avas a rush into
the surf. Some Avomen caught hold of the
ropes, Avere dragged out of their depth,
clung till their fingers were cut through,
and perished in the Avaves. The ships
began to move. A Avild and terrible wail
arose from the shore, and excited uiiAvonted
compassion in hearts steeled by hatred of
the Irish race and of the Komish faith.
Ea'cii the stern CroniAvellian, now at
length, after a desperate struggle of three
years, left the undisputed lord of the
blood-stained and devastated island, could
not hear unmoved that bitter cry, in
Avhich Avas poured forth all the rage and
all the sorroAv of a conquered nation.”

The sad scene here related did really
take place ; and in after-times, Avdien those
Irish soldiers Avere in the armies of
France, and saAv before them the red
ranks of King William’s soldiery, that
long, terrible shriek rung in their ears,
and made their hearts like fire and their
nerves like steel. We know that Avheii
their officers sought to rouse their ardour
for a charge, no recital of the Avrongs their
country had endured could kindle so fierce
a flame of vengeful passion as the men-
tion of “thcAvomen’s parting cry.” But
the dishonesty of Lord Macaulay’s account
is in ascribing that cruel parting to the
noble Sarsfield, and in distinctly charging
him Avith breaking his Avord to the sol-
diers, though he did not mean to break
it Avhen he gave it.

Now, by referring back to the “Mili-
tary Articles” of the Treaty, Ave see that
it Avas not Sarsfield, but General Ginkell,
on the part of King William, Avho Avas to
furnish shippingfor the emigrants and their
families — “all other persons belonging to
them — that it Avas not Sarsfield, but
Ginkell, Avho Avas to “form an estimate”
of the amount of shipping required ; and
that it Avas not Sarsfield, therefore, but
Ginkell, Asdio could “alter the arrange-
ments” at the last moment. As to
General Sarsfield’s proclamation to the
men, “ that they should be permitted to
carry their A\dves and families to France,”
he made that statement on the faith of
the First and several succeeding articles
of the treaty, not being yet arvare of any
design to violate it. But this is not all:
the historian Avho could not let the hero

18

HISTOllY OF IRELAND.

go into his sorrowful exile without seek-
ing to plunge this venomous sting into
his reputation, had before him the Life of
King William, by Harris, and also Curry’s
Historical Eeview of the Civil Wars,
wherein lie must have seen that the lords-
justices and General Ginkell are charged
■with endeavouring to defeat the execu-
tion of that First Article. For, says
Harris, “ as great numbers of the officers
and soldiers had resolved to enter into the
service of France, and to carry their fami-
lies with them, Ginkell would not suffer
their wives and children to be shipped off
with the men ; not doubting that by de-
taining the former he would have pre-
vented many of the latter from going into
that service. This, I say, was confessedly
an infringement of the Articles.”

To this we may add, that no Irish offi-
cer or soldier in France afterwards at-
tributed the cruel parting at Cork to any
fault of Sarsfield, but always and only to
a breach of the Treaty of Limerick. And
if he had deluded them in the manner
represented by the English historian, they
would not have followed him so enthusi-
astically on the nelds of Steinkirk and
Landen.

CHAPTER II.

1092— 1G93.

William the Third not bigoted. — Practical toleration
for four years. — First Parliament in this reign. —
Catholics excluded by a resolution.— Extension of
civil existence for Catholics. — Irish Protestant
Nationality. — Massacre of Glencoe. — Battle of
Steinkirk. — Court of St. Germains. — “Declara-
tion.”— Battle of Landen, and death of Sarstield.

Kixg William the Third was not per-
sonally fanatical or illiberal ; and never
desired to punish or mulct his subjects,
whether iu Ireland, in England, or in
Holland, for mere differences of religion,
about which this king cared little or
nothing. But he was king by the sup-
port of the Protestant party ; was the
recognized head of that party in Europe ;
was obliged to sustain that party, and
avenge it upon its enemies, or it would
soon have deserted his interests and his
cause. For the first four ^^ears of his
reign in Ireland, w^e have even the too
favourable testimony of some Irish writers
to the leniency and beneficence of his ad-
ministration, which the reader will find
hard to conciliate with the actual facts.
Mr. Matthew O’Conor, a worthy member
of the ‘‘ Catholic Board,” gives this very
remarkable testimony :

“In matters of religion. King William
■was liberal, enlightened, and philosophic.
Equally a friend to religious as to civil

liberty, he granted toleration to dissenters
of ali descriptions, regardless of their
speculative opinions. In the early part
of his reign, the Irish Catholics enjoyed
the full and free exercise of their religion.
They were protected in their persons and
properties ; their industry was encouraged;
and under his mild and fostering adminis-
tration, the desolation of the late war be-
gan to disappear, and prosperity, peace,
and confidence to smile once more on the
country.”

To those who are disposed to be thank-
ful for very small favours, the beginning
of William’s reign in Ireland was certainly
acceptable. There was a practical tolera-
tion of Catholic worship, though it was
against the law ; priests were not hunted,
though by law they were felons ; and for
a short while it seemed as if “ the Ascen-
dency” would content itself with the for-
feitures of rich estates, and the exclusion
of Catholic gentlemen from Parliament,
from the Bar, and the practice of medi-
cine, and Catholic traders from the guilds
of their trade, and from the corporate
bodies of the towns they dwelt in. This
was actually the amount of the toleration
granted to the Irish Catholic nation dur-
ing those early years of this reign.

In 1G'J2, the Lord Lieutenant, Lord
Sydney, convened the first Irish Parlia-
ment of William’s reign. It tvas the first
Parliament in Ireland (except that con-
vened by James) for twenty-six years.
As there was then no Irish Act disquali-
fying Catholics from sitting in Parlia-
ment, certain peers and a few commoners
of that faith attended, and took their
seats ; but the English Parliament of the
year before having provided against this,
they were at once met by the oath of
supremacy, declaring the king of England
head of the Church, and affirming the
sacrifice of the Mass to be damnable. The
oath was put to each member of both
houses, and the few Catholics present at
once retired, so that the Parliament, when
it proceeded to business, tvas purely ]h’o-
testant. Here then ended the last vestige
of constitutional right for the Catholics :
from this date, and for generations to
come, they could no longer consider them-
selves a part of the existing body politic
of their native land ; and the division into
two nations became definite. There w*as
the dominant nation, consisting of the
British colony ; and the subject nation,
consisting of five-sixths of the iiopulation,
who had thereafter no more influence upon
public affairs than have the red Indians
in the United States.

Before quitting the subject of this total
I abolition of civil existence for the Catho-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

la

lies, we may anticipate a little to observe
that, by another act of the Irish Parlia-
ment. in 1G97,* it was enacted, that ‘‘a
Protestant viurrying a Catholic Avas dis-
abled from sitting or voting in either
house of Parliament.” But as Catholics
•could still vote at elections (though they
could now vote for none but mortal ene-
mies), even this poor privilege was taken
awa.y from them a few years later. In
1727, it Avas enacted that “no Catholic
shall be entitled or admitted to vote at
the election of any member to serve in
Parliranent as a knight, citizen, or bur-
gess ; or at the election of any magistrate
for any city, or other town corporate ; anj'-
laAA', statute, or usage to the contrary not-
Avithstaiiding.”f By the operation of these
statutes alone, Avithout taking account for
the present of the more directly penal
code, the great mass of the population of
this country Avas debased to a point Avhich
it noAv requires an effort fully to compre-
hend. No man had to court their votes,
nor consult their interests or their feel-
ings. They had no longer any one to
stand up for them in the halls of legisla-
tion, to oppose new oppressions (and the
op})ressions Avere ahvays ucav and heavier
from day to day), nor to expose and re-
fute calumnies, and these Avere in plenty.
They were not only shut out from the
great councils of the nation, but every
one of them, in every toAvn and parish in
Ireland, felt himself the inferior and Axassal
of his Protestant neighbours, and the
A'ictim of a minute, spiteful, and con-
temptuous tyranny, at the hands of those
Avho AA’-ere often morally and physically far
his inferiors. Of the exclusion from Par-
liament, the able author of the Statement
of the Penal Laws has truly observed :

“ The advantages floAving from a seat in
the Legislature, it is Avell knoAvn, are not
confined to the individual representative.
They extend to all his family, Mends, and
connections ; or, in other Avords, to every
Protestant in Ireland. Within his reach
are all the honours, offices, emoluments :
every sort of gratification to avarice or
vanity: the means of spreading a great
personal interest by innumerable petty
services to in ividuals. lie can do an
infinite number- of acts of kindness and
generosity, and even of public spirit. He
can procure advantages in trade, indem-
nity from public burdens, preferences in
local competitions, pardons for offences.
He can obtain a thousand favours, and
avert a thousand evils. He may, Avhile he
betrays every valuable public interest, be,
at the same time, a benefactor, a patron, a
* 9ih Wm. III., chap. 3.

1 1 Geo. II., chap. 9.

father, a guardian angel to his political
adherents. On the other hand, how stands
the Catholic gentleman or trader? Por
liis oAvn person, no office, no poAver, no
emolument ; for his children, brothers,
kindred, or friends, no i)romotion, ec-
clesiastical or civil, military or naval
Except from his private fortune, he
has no means of advancing a child,
of making a single friend, or of shoAv-
ing any one good quality. He has
nothing to offer but harsh refusal, pitiful
excuse, or despondent representation.”
And the effect of the exclusion from
corporations Avas a thousand times more
galling still ; because that disability
presses upon individuals everyAvfiere, in
their OAvn homes, and in every daily action
of their lives. The same accurate author,
Avriting more than a century after King
William’s death, thus describes the con-
dition of Catholic tradesmen and artificers
throughout the tOAvns of Ireland — it Avill
show hoAV thoroughly these xienal laAvs did
their Avork for generations :

“ They are debased by the galling as-
cendency of iirivileged neighbours. They
are depressed by partial imposts ; b}^ un-
due preferences and accommodation be-
stoAved upon their competitors ; by a local
inquisition ; by an uncertain and unequal
measure of justice ; by fraud and fav(mr-
itism daily and openly i)ractised to their
prejudice. The Catholic gentleman, Avhose
misfortune it may be to reside in or near
to any of these cities or tOAvns in Ireland,
is hourly exposed to all the slights and
annoyances that a petty sectarian oli-
garchy may think proper to inflict. The
professional man risks continual inflictions
of personal humiliation. The farmer
brings the produce of his lands to market
under heavier tolls. Every species of
Catholic industry and mechanical skill is
checked, taxed, and rendered precarious.

“ On the other hand, every species of
Protestant indolence is cherislied and
maintained ; every claim is allowed ; every
Avant supplied ; every extortion sanctioned :
nay, the A^ery name of ‘ Protestant’ se-
cures a competence, and commands pa-
trician pre-eminence in Ireland.”

But though the inhabitants of Ireland
Avere noAv, counting from the year 1G92,
definitHely divided into tAAm castes, there
arose immediately, strange to say, a strong
sentiment of Irish nationality ; not, in-
deed, amongst the depressed Catholics —
they Avere done Avith national sentiment
and aspiration for a time ; but the Protes-
tants of Ireland had lately groAvn numer-
ous, Avealthy, and strong. Their numbers
had beqn largely increased, partly by
English settlers coming to enjoy thepiun-

4

20 HISTORY OF IRELAND.

dor of the forfeited estates, and very much
by conversions, or pretended conversions
of Catholics Avho liad recanted their faith
to save their ]n*operty or their position in
society, and Avho generally altered or dis-
guised their family names when these had
too Celtic a sound. The Irish Protes-
tants also prided themselves on having
saved the kingdom for William and ‘-the
Ascendency and having now totally
jmt down the ancient nation under their
feet, they aspired to take its place, to rise
from a colony to a nation, and to assert
the dignity of an independent kingdom.

Even in this Parliament of 1G02 the
spirit of independence ventured to show
itself. Two money-bills, Avhich had not
originated in Ireland, Avere sent over from
England to be passed, or rather to be ac-
cepted and registered. One of these bills
was for raising additional duty on beer,
ale, and other liquors ; and this they
passed to an amount not exceeding
il70,000 ; but grounding their action upon
the alleged urgency of the case, and de-
claring that it should not be draAvn into
a precedent. This As as on the 21st of Oc-
tober, 1G92. INIuch constitutional dis-
cussion took place upon this occasion:
and honourable members stimulated one
another’s patriotism byrecalling the rights
and prerogatives of the ancient kingdom
of Ireland. So, a feAv days after, on the
28th of October, the House of Commons
rejected altogether the second English
bill ; Avhich Avas to grant to their majesties
the produce of certain duties for one year.
On the 3rd of Xovember SydneA' prorogued
Parliament Avith a very angry speech ; and
at the same time required the clerk to
enter his formal protest against the dan-
gerous doctrine asserted in the Commons
resolutions, and haughtily affirming the
right and power of the English Parlia-
ment to bind Ireland by acts passed in
London. After two prorogations, this
Parliament Avas dissolved on the 5th of
September, 1793.

Not only did King William giA^e Ins
royal assent to the laws of exclusion made
by this Parliament, but he did not make
any proposal or any effort to gain for the
Irish Catholics those further securities,”
as engaged by the Treaty of Limerick,
Avhich Avere to protect them from all dis-
turbance” in the exercise of their religion.
Yet this Avas but a trifling matter com-
pared Avith Avhat the same king did in the
course of the next folloAving Parliament,
that coiiA'ened in 1G95. It is often alleged,
on his behalf, that he Avas provoked and
distressed by the furious bigotry and vio-
lence of his Irish Protestant subjects ;
and that he eAxm endeaA'oured to moderate

them by the influence of Sydney, his lord-
lieutenant ; in short, that he Avas so Avholly
dependent on his Parliaments, both of
England and of Ireland, that he could not
A'enture to tliAvart their one great policy,
purpose, and passion— to crush Papists ;
and that such opposition on his part AA'ould
have cost him his croAvn. That Avas un-
fortunate for him ; inasmuch as the actual
conduct Avhich these headstrong sup-
porters cf his obliged him to adopt, has
cost him more than a croAvn, his reputa-
tion for good faith.

It Avas in February of this year, 1G92,
that the massacre of Glencoe befell in a
remote A’alley of the Highlands of Scotland.
King William, Ave are assured, did not
Avish to perpetrate this iniquity, any more
than to break the Treaty of Limerick
but certain AA'icked advisers in Scotland
forced him to do the one deed, just as his
furious Protestants of Ireland obliged him
to commit the other. In Scotland it aa'us
the Avicked iMaster of Stair, together Avith
the A’indictive Marquis of Breadalbane,
Avho planned the slaughter ; and Stair,
the Secretary for Scotland, presented to
the king, in his closet, and then and there
induced his majesty to sign a paper in
these Avords : *• As for Maclan of Glencoe,
and that tribe, if they can be Avell distin-
guished from the other Highlanders, it
Avill be proper for the A'indication of public
justice, to extirpate that set of tliieves.”
And this order Avas directed to the Com-
mander of the Forces in Scotland. What
Avas intended, therefore, Avas military exe-
cution, Avithout judge or jury, to be in-
flicted upon unarmed and unsuspecting
country-people, Avith their Avives and chil-
dren. The crime, or alleged crime, Avas
liaA’ing been late in coming in and giA'ing
their submission. The king did not read
the order aboA'e cited, says Archbishop
Burnet, but he signed it ; and says his
eloquent eulogist, Macaulay, “ Whoever
has seen anything of public business
knoAvs that princes and ministers daily
sign, and indeed must sign documents
Aviiich they have not read ; and of all do-
cuments, a document relating to a small
tribe of mountaineers, living in a Avilder-
ness, not set doAvn on any map. Avas least
likely to interest a sovereign Avhose mind
Avas full of schemes on Avhich the fate of
Europe might depend.” Yet the order
AA'as not a long one ; about three seconds,
if his majesty could have spai'ed so long a
time from meditating on the fate of
Europe, Avould haA-e shoAvn Avhat fate he Avas
decreeing to the MacDonalds of Glencoe.
It seems he conld not give so much of his
leisure, so the order Avas sent ; and accor-
dingly, the king’s troops, have first quar-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

21

terecl themselves amongst the simple peo-
ple, in the guise of friends, and partaken
of their mountain hospitality ; and having
taken the precaution, as they believed, to
guard all the outlets of the valley, arose
before dawn one winter’s morning, and
butchered every MacDonald, man, woman,
and child, whom they could find. A few
details of this performance may be inter-
esting ; they are given by Lord Macaulay,
an author who was certainly not disposed
to exaggerate their atrocity :

“ But the orders which Glenlyon had
received were precise, and he began to
execute them at the little village where
he was himself quartered. Ilis host, In-
verriggeu, and nine other MacDonalds,
were dragged out of their beds, bound
hand and foot, and murdered. A boy
twelve years old clung round the cap-
tain’s legs, and begged hard for life. He
would do anything : he would go any-
where ; he would follow Glenlyon round
the world. Even Glenlyon, it is said,
showed signs of relenting : but a ruffian,
named Drummond, shot the child dead.

••At Auchnaion, the tacksman, Auchin-
triater, was up early that moriiiug, and
was sitting with eight of his family round
the fire, when a volley of musketry laid
him and seven of his companions dead or
dying on the floor. His brother, avIio
alone had escaped unhurt, called to Ser-
geant Barbour, who commanded the
slayers, andasked as a favourto be allowed
to die in the open air. ‘ Well,’ said the
■sergeant, ‘ I will do yon that favour for
the sake of your meat which I have
eaten.’ The mountaineer, bold, athletic,
and favoured by the darkness, came forth,
rushed on the soldiers who were about to
level their pieces at him, flung his plaid
over their faces, and was gone in a mo-
ment.

•• Meanwhile Lindsay had knocked at
the door of the old chief, and had asked
for admission in friendly language. The
door was opened. Maclan, while putting
on his clothes and calling to his servants
to bring some refreshments for his visi-
tors, was shot through the head. Two of
his attendants were slain with him. His
wife was already up and dressed in such
finery as the ijrincesses of the rude High-
land glens were accustomed to wear.
The assassins pulled off her clothes and
trinkets. The rings were not easily taken
from her fingers : but a soldier tore them
aAvay with his teeth. She died on the
following day.”

Over thirty persons were killed there
that morning, but owing to the blun-
•der,” as Macaulay calls it, of commencing
the massacre with a volley of musketry,

instead of giving them the cold steel,
three-fourths of the MacDonalds of Glen-
coe escaped the slaughter, but only to
perish in the snowy mountains for want
of food and shelter. Such, and so sad
may bo the effects of evil counsels u})on
the minds of benevolent monarchs, who
are too deeply occupied in revolving pro-
jects on whicli the fate of Euro2)e might
depend.

Another event befell in, the summer of
this year, 1G‘J2, Avhich deserves record.
On a J uly morning, about the time when
the Protestant Parliament in Dul)lin was
devising cunning oaths against Transub-
stantiation and Invocation of Saints, to
drive out its few Catholic members, Pa-
trick Sarsfield, and some of his comrades,
just fresh from Limerick, had the deep
gratification to meet King William on the
glorious field of Steinkirk. Sarsfield and
Berwick were then officers high in com-
mand under IMarshal Luxembourg, when
King William at the head of a great
allied force, attacked the Erench encamp-
ment. The attacking force was \inder
the banners of England, of the United
Provinces, of Spain, and of the Empire :
and it had all the advantage of effecting
a surprise. The battle was long and
bloody, and Avas finished by a splendid
charge of Erench Cavalry, among the
foremost of Avhose leaders Avas the same
glorious Sarsfield, Avhose SAvord had once
before driven back the same William from
before the Avails of Limerick. The Eng-
lish and their allies Avere entirely defeated
in that battle, Avith a loss of about ten
thousand men. (jnce more, and before
very long, Sarsfield and King William
Avere destined to meet again.

King James Avas at this time residing
at the palace of St. Germain-en-laye, near
Paris, upon a pension allowed liiin by
Louis XIV., and Avaiting on the result of
the Avar betAveen Erance and the Allies.
As William had now become A'ery unpo-
pular in England, it Avas believed by the
advisers of the exiled monarch tliat a
suitable “ Declaration” issued from St.
Germains, and jn’oniismg, as the Stuarts
Avere alAA'ays ready to promise, such re-
forms and improvements in administra-
tion as should conciliate x)ublic opinion in
England, might once more turn the minds
of his British subjects toAvards their legi-
timate dynasty, and open a Avay for his
return to his throne. His great coun-
sellor on this occasion AA'as Charles, Earl
of Middleton, a Scotchman. On the 17th
of April, 1G93, this famous Declaration
Avas signed and published. It promised,
on the part of James, a free pardon to all
his subjects Avho should not oppose him

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

DO

after his landin'?; that as soon as he Avas
restored he woiilil call a parliament ; that
he Avould confirm all such laws passed
during the usurpation as the Houses
should present to him for confirmation ;
tliat he Avould protect and defend the
Established Church in all her possessions 1
and privileges ; that he would not again
violate the Test Act ; that he Avould leave
it to the Legislature to define the extent
of his dispensing power ; and that he
Avould maintain the Act of Settlement in
Ireland. This Declaration, then, was an
appeal to his English subjects exclusively ; ^
and to propitiate them, he promiseil to
leave the Irish people Avholly at their
mercy— to undo all the measures in favour
of religious liberty and common justice
Avhich had been enacted by his Irish Par-
liament of 1G8D, and to leave the holders
of the confiscated estates, his own deadly
enemies in Ireland, in undisturbed posses-
sion of all their spoils. It is asserted,
indeed, in the Life of King James, that
he struggled against committing himself
to such unqualified support of the Protes-
tant interest, but he Avas finally induced to
sign tlie document as it stood. It Avas
sent to England, printed, and published,
but produced no effect Avhatever of the
kind intended. It did produce, hoAvever,
a great and just indignation among the
Irish soldiers and gentlemen aaJio had lost
all their possessions, and encountered so
many perils to vindicate the right of this
coAvardly and faithless king. Serious dis-
content Avas manifested among the Irish
regiments then serving in the Netherlands
and on the frontiers of Germany and
Italy ; and Ave find that the treacherous
Middleton, his Scottish and Protestant
adviser, Avho had led the king into this
act of ingratitude, as useless as it Avas
base, made great efforts to sooth the feel-
ings of these fine troops. A letter is ex-
tant from Lord IMiddleton to Justin Mac-
Carthy, then in active service in Germany,
endeavouring to explain aAvay the ob-
noxious points of the Declaration, and
soliciting MacCarthy’s influence to pacify
other officers. In this letter Secretary
IMiddleton has the assurance to say The
king promises in the foresaid Declaration
to restore the Settlement, but at the same
time declares that he Avill recompense all
those AA'ho may suffer by it, in giving
them equivalents.”* There Avas no such
promise in the Declaration, and his corres-
l)ondent must have knoAvn it ; but, in
truth, the Irish troops in the army of
King Louis, the fierce exiles of Limerick,
Avere at that time too busy in the camp
and the field, and too keenly desirous to
* The letter is in MacphersoiTs Collection.

meet the English in battle, to pay much
attention to anything coming from King
James. They had had enough of Ri(ju
Seamus at the Boyne Water.

A portion of them soon had their Avish ;
for neither Luxembourg nor King William
alloAved the grass to groAv under their
horses’ hoofs. On the 19th of July, in
this year, 1G93. they Avere in presence-
again on the bank of the little river Lan-
den, and close by the Aullage of Xeer-
AA'inden, The English call that memor-
able battle by the first name, and the
Erench by the second. It Avas near Ijiege
in the Netherlands, that famous battle-
ground Avhicli had seen, and Avas again to
see, so many blood}' days. This time it
Avas the French Avho attacked the Allies
in an intrenched position. After heaA'y
artillery firing for some time, the French
made a desparate attack on the A’illage of
Neerwinden; and the Duke of Bei’Avick,
at the head of some Irish troops, led the-
onset, supported and folloAved by the left
Aving of the French army, commanded by
Montchevreuil. The slaughter in the-
A'iUage Avas tremendous, and here Beinvick
Avas taken prisoner. This first attack
failed, and after a furious struggle the
French and Irish Avere forced back. A
fresh division, under the Duke de Bour-
bon, reneAved the attack, and Avas again
repulsed ; but as this Avas the important
point, Luxembourg resoh'ed to make a
final struggle for it, and the chosen forces
of King Louis, led on by his renoAvned
household troops Avere launched in a re-
sistless mass against the village. A third
tiaie it AA'as entered, and a third time there-
Avas a scene of fearful carnage in its
streets. Among the French officers in
this final struggle Avas Patrick Sarsfield.’*^
King William fought his army to the last;,
but Neerwinden being gone, the key of
the position Avas lost, and at length the
Avhole English and allied army gaA'e Avay
all along the line. The pursuit AA'as furi-
ous and sanguinary, as the Allies kept
tolerable order, and fought every step of
the Avay. In the army of William Avas the-
Duke of Ormond, and in the Avild con-
fusion he Avas unhorsed ; but the French
soldier avIio brought him doAvn espied on
his finger a precious diamond, and saA'ed
his life as being certainly a prisoner of
rank. He Avas soon after exchanged for-
Bei’Avick. At length the flying army of
William arrived at the little river Gette ;.
and here the retreat Avas in danger of be-
coming a total rout. Arms and standards

* It does not seem certain that Berwick and
Sarsfield liad any Irish regiments under their com-
mand at Landen. O’Connor (.Alilitary Memoir; says,
that Sarsticld fell in leading a charge of Frencb.
troops.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

23

were flung away, and multitudes of fugi-
tives Avere choking up the fords and
bridges of the river, or perishing in its
AA^aters, so fiercely did the Auctors press
upon their rear. It Avas here that Patrick
Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, Avdio had that
day, as Avell as at Steinkirk, earned the
admiration of the Avhole French army, re-
ceived his death-shot at the head of his
men. It A\’as in a happy moment. Before
he fell, he could see the standards of Eng-
land SAvept along by the tide of headlong
flight, or trailing in the muddy Avaters of
the Gette— he could see the scarlet ranks
that he had once hurled back from the
ramparts of Limerick, noAv rent and riven,
fast falling in their Avild flight, while
there AA*as sent peeling after them the
vengeful shout, liemember Limerick!'^
The victory of the French aa'us com-
plete; and after two sucli defeats, so
closely folloAving each other, the affairs of
King William A\^ent badly for a time.
There Avas, therefore, a certain mildness
and mercy obserA’-able in the administra-
tion of Ireland toAvards the Catholics ; for
as LaAAdess has justly observed, “ The
riglits of Irishmen and the prosperity of
England cannot exist together — a melan-
choly truth Avhich the CA'cnts of the
present day only contribute to confirm,
and Avhich is still left to the enlightened
English Government of future days to re-
fute. The lights of history cannot be
extinguished, nor her poAverful voice
silenced. The conclusions Ave have draAvn
are irresistible, and tlie idle Auolence Avliich
attempts to punish their publication only
impresses those truths more deeply on the
mind. The glories of William and of
Anne — the victories of Marlborough, and
the universal conquests of Chatham, have
been the most disastrous epochs of Ire-
land. Never was the heart of our country
so low as Avhen England Avas the envy and
the terror of her enemies. The sounds of
English triumphs Avere to her the sounds
of sorrow — the little tyrants who ruled
her AV'ere inflamed Avith courage, and
urged on Avith imu’eased rancour — the un-
happy Catholics of Ireland, aaLo ahvays
constituted the nation, AAxu’e doomed to
be again insulted and tortured Avith im-
punity.”

Accordingly, it Avill soon be seen that
the apparent gentleness used at this time
tOAvards the ancient Irish nation, Avas des-
tined to be of short continuance.

CHAPTER III.

1693—1698.

Capel lord-lieutenant. — AVar in the Netherlands. —
Capture of Namur. — Grievances of the Protestant
colonists. — Act for disarming I’apists. — Laws
against education. — Against priests. — Against in-
termarrying with Papists. — Act to “ confirm ”
Articles of Limerick. — Irish on the continent.

Sydney, the lord-lieutenant, became ex-
ceedingly unpopular Avith the people of
the English colony in Ireland, in conse-
quence of his continued assertion of the
supreme poAvers of the British Parliament,
and his opposition to the assertion of this
new Anglo-Irish nationality. But his un-
popularity Avas still greater on account of
his known repugnance to still further and
more searching penal laAA's against the
Catholics. He Avas soon, therefore, re-
called, and the island Avas ruled for a time
by three lords-justices. Lord Capel, Sir
Cyril Wyche. and Mr. Buncombe. Be-
tAA'een these three, serious differences of
policy soon manifested themseHes ; the
tAvo latter being in favour of a continuance
of the toleration, and of shoAving some
slight regard to the rights of the Catliolic
people under the Treaty of Limerick ;
Avhile Capel, as Harris confesses, Avas
desirous of doing all in his poAver to in-
fringe that treaty. The intrigues of the
intolerant party finally prevailed so far as
to jfrocure the appointment of Caifel as
lord-lieutenant ; and in 1695 he sum-
moned a parliament, the second of this
reign.

in the meantime King William and his
allies had been prosecuting the Avar
against France Avitli A'arying success, but
on the whole, the advantage had rested
Avith the French, at least, in the cam-
paigns by land. In 1695, hoAA'ever, the
tide began to turn in the Netherlands ;
and on the 26th of August, in that year,
the toA\m and fortress of Namur, one of
the strongest places in Europe, defended
by Marshal Boutflers, Avas surrendered to
the allies after an arduous siege. For the
first time, since first there Avere marshals
of France, a French Marshal delivered up
a fortress to a victorious enemy. There
was high rejoicing in England over this
great event ; it Ava.s, therefore, an event
of evil omen for Ireland.

During the three years preceding the
meeting of this parliament, there had been
continual complaints made by the Protes-
tant “ Ascendancy,” of the favours shoAAm
to “Papists,” and the consequent discour-
agement and depression of the Protestant

24

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

interest. The great theme of discussion
in Ireland at that day Avas A\diether, and
hoAv far, the Articles of Limerick ought
to be considered binding ; and the parlia-
ment. in 1092, had addressed the king,
complaining of the restoration of certain
confiscated estates to Catholics in the fiA'e
counties specified in the articles ; which
restoration Avas expressly stipulated for
ill the treaty ;* and further requesting
his majesty “ to have the articles of the
Treaty of Limerick laid before us [the
parliament], in order that Ave may learn
by Avhat means, and under Avhat ji retext,
they have been granted,” etc. Consider-
ably over a million of acres had been ad-
judged confiscated in consequence of the
last “ rebellion,” and of this land, about
one quarter had been restored to its right
OAvners in pursuance of the treaty. In
short, the Irish nation,” as the handful
of colonists called themseh^es, AS'as suffer-
ing under grieA'ous distress and depression;
and a IMr. Stone, member of the Irish
House of Commons, being examined at the
bar of the English House, gave in his eAu-
dence so sad an account of the sufferings
of the Protestants, as produced a serious
effect upon public opinion in England.
“ There nei^er AA'as,” he declared, “ a
House of Commons of that kingdom of
greater property or better principles than
those Avhich met under Lord Sydney’s
administration.” He boasted of their
loyalty and zeal for his majesty’s sei’A'ice.
and alleged that their opposition to the
money bills had been occasioned by Lord
Sydney’s arrogance in insisting upon the
supreme sovereignty of the English croAvn
and Parliament ; and last, and Avorst of
all, he complained “that the Papists AA'ere
in actual possession of that liberty AA’hich,
if extended to Protestants, Avould haA^e
prcA'ented the necessity of rendering the
Irish Commons obnoxious by the rejection
of so many bills.” In short, the pathetic
narration of these pretended grievances
and oppressions had brought about, first,
the recall of Lord Sydney, and afterwards
the ai)pointment of Lord Capel as lord-
lieutenant. The comparative success of
William’s arms in the Netherlands con-
tributed still more effectually to give a
complete triumph to the Ascendancy
l^arty ; and accordingly the Protestant
colonists Avere highly gratified Avhen Lord
Capel, in opening the parliament of 1G95,
announced that the king Avas intent on a
firm settlement of Ireland “upon a Pro-
testant interest.” It might ha\m been
supposed that Ireland Avas already pretty
Avell settled in the interest of Protestants;

* See the Address in full, in MacGeoghegan:
Sadlier’s Edition.

but the ingenuity of this parliament
found means of still further extending
and improving the latvs Avhich already
made Catholics outlaAvs in their native
land.

There Avas no more factious opposition
to the government; the jAarliament Avas
obsequious, and readily passed all bills
that Avere required at its hands. All it
asked Avas to haA'e the Papists deliA'ered
up, body and goods, into the hands of the
Ascendancy. It Avill give an idea of the
grievances and oppressions AA’hich the
Protestants noAV plaintHely represented
to parliament in petitions Avhich poured
in from all quarters, if Ave mention that
one of these petitions Avas from the mayor,
sheriffs, and Protestant aldermen of the
city of Limerick, complaining that “ they
AA-ere greatly damaged in their trade by
the great numbers of Papists residing
there, and praying to be relieAmd therein.”
And, in fact, those honest Protestants
AA’ere relieved by express enactment.
Another petition, gravely presented to
parliament, Avas “ A petition of one Ed-
Avard Sprag, and others, in behalf of thcm-
seh’es and other Protestant porters, in
and about the city of Dublin, complaining
that one Darby Pyan, a Papist, employed
porters of his oaa’ii persuasion.”* This
petition Avas referred, like others, to the
“ Committee on Grievances.” The griev-
ances of persecuted Protestants, hoAA’eA'er,
AA’ere soon to have an end.

Catholics had been already excluded
from the legislature, from the corpora-
tions, and from the liberal professions ;
but Ave have seen that they could still
damage the trade of Protestant artificers
in Limerick, and even compete Avith Pro-
testant coal-porters in Dublin. The par-
liament of Lord Capel AA’as noAv about to
take such order Avith them that it Avas
hoped they Avould never trouble the Pro-
testant interest any more. The first re-
quisite Avas to effectually disarm them.
Accordingly, one of the first enactments
is entitled “ An Act for the better secur-
ing the gOA’ernment by disarming the
Papists.”! By this act, all Catholics
Afithin the kingdom of Ireland, Avere re-
quired to discover and deliver up by a
certain day, to the justices or ciA’il officers,
all their arms and ammunition. After
that day search might be made in their
houses for concealed arms and ammu-
nition ; and any tAA'o justices, or a mayor,
or sheriff, might grant the search-
AA’arrant, and compel any Catholic sus-
pected of liaA’ing cdncealed arms, etc., to
appear before them and ansAA’er the charge

* Commons Journ.als.
t 7 Win. HI. c. 5.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

25

or suspicion upon his oath.* The punisli-
ments were to be fine and imprisonment,
or, at the discretion of the court, the
pillcry and whipping. It is impossible to
describe the minute and curious tyranny
to which this statute gave rise in every
parish of the island. Especially in dis-
tricts Avhere there was an armed yeo-
manry, exclusively Protestant, it lared
ill wdth any Catholic Avho fell, for any
reason under the displeasure of his for-
midable neighbours. Any i^retext was
sufficient for pointing him out to sus-
picion. Any neighbouring magistrate
might visit him at any hour of the night,
and search his bed for arms. No Papist
was safe from suspicion Avho had any
money to pay in fines ; and w'oe to the
Papist who had a handsome daughter !

It Avould be difficult to imagine any me-
thod of degrading human nature more
effectual than the prohibition of arms ;
but the parliament resolved to employ
still another v'ay. This Avas to prohibit
education. Catholics were already de-
barred from being tutors or teachers ; and
many Catholic young men Av^ere sent for
education to the schools and imiAnu’sities
of the continent. It aa^us therefore enacted
“ that if any subjects of Ireland should,
after that session, go, or send any child
or person, to be educated in any poi)ish
university, college, or school, or in any
private famil}^ ; or if such child shouhl,
by any popish person, be instructed in the
popish religion ; or if any subjects of Ire-
land should send money or things towards
the maintenance of such child, or other
person already sent, or to be sent, every
such offender, being thereof convicted,
should be forever disabled to sue or pro-
secute any action, bill, plaint, or informa-
tion in law or equity ; to be guardian, ad-
ministrator, or executor to any person,
or to be capable of any legacy, or deed of
gift ; and, besides, should forfeit all their
estates, both real and personal, during
their lives.”f It Avas further enacted, that
“ No Papist, after the 20th January, IG'Jo,
shall be cajiable to have, or keep in his
possession, or in the lAossession of any
other, to his use, or at his disposition, any
Lorse, gelding, or mare, of the A'alue of £5
or more Avnth the usual clauses to in-
duce Protestants to inform, and cause
search to be made for the contraband
horses ; the property of the horses to be
vested in the discoverer.

The tAvo acts before mentioned at once
bred in Ireland a great swarm of infor-
mers and detectives, Avho have been a

* This enactment, under various new forms and
names, is the law at this day.

t 4 Wm. and Mary, c. 4.

grievous plague upon the country ever
since. But the penal code AAaas still far
from complete. It AV'as thought needful
to strike at the Catholics more directly
through their religion itself, in which it
Avas observed they took much comfort.
Therefore, it Avas enacted by the same
Parliament “ That all popish archbishops,
bishops, vicars-general, deans, jesuits,
monks, friars, and all other regular popish
clergy, and all papists exercising any ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction, shall depart this
kingdom before the first day of May,
1698.” If any of them remained aftei
that day, or returned, the delinquents
Avere to be transported, and if they re-
turned again, to be guilty of high treason,
and to suffer accordingly.” To pretend a
toleration of the Catholic religion, but to
banish bishops, and thus prevent orders,
can scarcely be considered a very liberal
proceeding ; but there Avere still more
minute proA’isions made, after banishing
the clergy, for the continual torture of
the laity. For example, this same parlia-
ment, 1695, enacted a statute Avhich im-
posed a fine of two shillings (and, in de-
fault of payment, u'/iii>/)ing) upon ‘‘ every
common labourer being hired, or other
servant retained, Avho shall refuse to Avork
at the usual and accustomed Avages, upon
any day except the days appointed l)y the
this statute to be kept holy ; namely, all
Sundays in the .year, and certain other
days named therein.”

Another act Avas passed by this parlia-
ment “to prevent Trotestants intermarry-
ing Avith Papists,” in order to obviate tl'ie
])0ssible danger of the tAvo nations becom-
ing gradually amalgamated by affinities
and family interests ; and as the Catholics,
in some places, Avere associating together
to place their interests in the hands of le •
gal advisers, an act Avas passed “ to
prevent Papists being solicitors.” It
must not be omitted to mention, that the
parliament Avdiich violated, b.y so many
ingenious laAvs, the conditions made at the
capitulation of Limerick, did also gravely
and solemnly pass an act “for the confir-
mation of Articles made at the surrender
of the city of Limerick — or so much there-
of,” said the preamble, “ as may consist
with the safety and Avelfare of yonr Ma-
jesty’s subjects in these kingdoms.” The
greater part, or almost the Avhole of the
stipulations on behalf of the Catholics,
contained in those articles, had been de-
liberately and avoAvedly violated by the
very legislature Avhich enacted this hypo-
critical act. It passed almost unanimously
in the Commons ; but unexpectedly met
with vigorous resistance in the House of
Lords ; Avdiere, on its final passage, a for-

2G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

mal protest against it was entered by a
number of the ancient nobility, and even
by some Anglican bishops. The protest
was signed by the lords Duncannon,
Londonderry and Tyrone, the barons of
Limerick, Howth, Ossory, Killaloe, Kerry,
Strabane and Kingston, and also by the
bishops of Derry, Elphin, Clonfert, Kildare
and Killala. It gave these reasons for the
protest :

“ 1. Because the title did not agree with
the body of the bill ; the title being an act
for the confirmation of the Irish articles,
whereas no one of said articles Avas therein
fully confirmed. 2. Because the articles
AA’ere to be confirmed to them to Avhom
they Avere granted ; but the confirmation
of them by that bill AA-as such, that it
put them in a Avorse condition than they
AA'ere in before. 3. Because the bill
omitted the material Avords, ‘and all such as
are under their protection in the said
counties,’ Avhich AA'ere by his Majesty’s
titles patent, declared to be part of the
second article; and several persons had
been adjudged Avithin said articles AA^ho
AA'ould, if the bill passed into laAv, be
entirely barred and excluded, so that
the Arords omitted being so very material,
and confirmed by his Majesty after
a solemn debate in council, some
express reason ought to be assigned
in the bill, in order to satisfy the AA'orld
of that omission. 4. Because several
AA’ords AA'ere inserted in the bill AA'hich
AA'ere not in the articles, and others omit-
ted, AA'hich altered both the sense and the
meaning thereof. Lastly, becaiise they
apprehended that many Protestants might
and AA'ould suffer by the bill in their just
rights and pretensions, by reason of their
having purchased, and lent money, upon
the faith of said article.”

Of the proceedings of this parliament,
it is only necessary to add one further de-
tail :

“A petition of Eobert Cusack, gentle-
man, Captain Francis Segrave and Cap-
tain Maurice Eustace, in behalf of them-
seh'es and others, comprised under the
Articles of Limerick, setting forth, that
in the said bill [act to confirm, &c.] there
AA'ere several clauses that Avoukl frustrate
the petitioners of the benefit of the same,
and if passed into a Iuaa' AA'ould turn to the
ruin of some, and the prejudice of all persons
entitled to the benefit of the said articles,
and praying to be heard by counsel to said
matters, having been i)resented and read,
it Avas unanimously resolved that said
petition should be rejected.'”

King William Avas all this AA'hile busily
engaged in carrying on the war against
Louis the Fourteenth, and his mind Avas

profoundly occupied about the destinies-
of Europe. He seems to haA'e definitely
gh'en up Ireland, to be dealt Avith by the
Ascendency at its pleasure. Yet he had
received the benefit of the capitulation
of Limerick : — he had engaged his royal
faith to its observance ; — he had further
engaged that he Avould endeavour to pro-
cure said Eoman Catholics such further
security as might preserve them from any
disturbance upon the account of their
said religion. And he not only did not
endeavour to procure any such further
security, but he gave his royal assent,
AA'ithout the least objection, to every one
of these acts of Parliament, carefully de-
priving them of such securities as they
had, and imposing ncAv and grievous op-
pressions “ upon the account of their said
religion.” It is expressly on account of
this shameful breach of faith on the part
of the King that Orange squires and gen-
tlemen, from that day to this, have been
enthusiastically toasting “the glorious,
pious, and immortal memory of the great
and good King William.”

The Avar Avas still raging all OA'er
Europe ; and multitudes of young Irish-
men AA'ere quitting aland AA'here they Avere
henceforth strangers and outlaAvs on their
OAvn soil, to find under the banners of
France an opportunity for such distinction
as exiles may hope to Avin. Brilliant re-
ports of the achievements of the old regi-
ments of Limerick on many a field, came
to Ireland by stray traA'ellers from the
continent, and inspired the high-spirited
youth of the country Avith an ambition to
enrol themselA'es in the ranks of the Irish
brigade. They had heard, for example, of
the great Auctories of Steinkirk and of
Landen; and hoAV at Marsiglia, on the
Italian slope of the Alps, the French
marshal, Catinat, obtained a splendid A'ic-
tory over the army of the Duke of Savoy
— a A'ictory, says Voltaire, “so much the
more glorious as the Prince Eugene Avas
one of the adA'erse generals and hoAv the
conduct of the Irish troops, Avho serA'ed
under Catinat on that occasion, gained
the applause of Europe and the thanks
of King Louis. It is no Avonder, there-
fore, seeing the depressing and humili-
ating condition to AA’hich they Avere re-
duced a home, that there Avas a large and
continual emigration of the best blood of
Ireland, at this time, and for a great part
of the folloAving century. These exiles
AA’ere not confined to the people of the
Celtic Irish clans; for all the English
settlers in Ireland, doAvn to the time of
Henry the Eighth, had of course been
Catholic, and these families generally ad-
hered to the old religion. Thus these old

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

27

English found themselves included in all
the severities of the penal lavs, along with
the primeval Scotic people, and they had
now their full proportion in the ranks of
the military adventurers Avho sought ser-
vice on the continent. Accordingly,
among the distinguished names of the
Irisli brigades, by the side of the Milesian
Sarsfields, O’Briens, and O’Donnells, we
find the Korman-descended Dillons,
Eoches, and Fitzgeralds. Of the amount
of that great emigration it is difficult to
procure any very exact idea ; but on this
subject there is no better authority than
the learned Abbe MacGeoghegan, who
Avas chaplain in the brigade, and who de-
A'oted himself to the task of recording the
history of his country. He affirms that
researclies in the office of the French War
Department shoAv that from the arrival
of the Irish troops in France, in 1G91, to
the year 1745 (the year of Fontenoy),
more than four hundred and fifty thou-
sand Irishmen died in the service of
France. The statement may seem almost
incredible; especially as Spain and Aus-
tria had also their share of our military
exiles ; but, certain it is, the expatriation
of the very best and choicest of the lidsli
people Avas noAV on a very large scale ; and
the remaining population, deprived of
their natural chiefs, bec.'ame still more
helpless in the hands of their enemies.
Baron Macaulay, whose language is ncA'er
too courteous in speaking of the Irish,
takes evident delight in dAvelling on the
abject condition of the great body of the
nation at this time. He calls them
“ Pariahs compares their position, in
the disputes between the English and
the Irish parliament, Avith that of “the
Red Indians in the dispute betAveen Old
England and New England about the
Stamp Act mentions Avitli complacency,
that Dean SAvift “ no more considered him-
self as an Irishman than an Englishman
born at Calcutta considers himself as a Hin-
doo and says A^ery truly, though
coarsely, that none of the “ patriots” of
the seventeenth century “ ever thought of
appealing to the native population — they
Avould as soon have thought of appealing
to the swine." The truth is, that most of
the choicest intellect and energy of the
Irish race Av’ere noAv to be looked for at
the courts of Versailles, Madrid, and
Vienna, or under the standards of France
on every battle-field of Europe. The
Catholics of Ireland may be said, at this
date, to disappear from political history,
and so remained till the era of the volun-
teering.

Obscure and despised as they Avere,
hoAvever, they Avere not too humble to

escape the curious eye of the laAvyers and
legislators of the “ Ascendency.” In fact
Ave have not yet advanced far beyond the
threshold ef the Penal LaAvs.

CHAPTER IV.

169S— 1703.

rredominance of the English Parliament. — Moly-
neux. — DecisiA'e action of the English Parliament.
— Court and country parties. — Suppression of
Avoollen manufacture. — Commission of confiscated
estates. — Its revelations. — Vexation of King
AVilliam. — Peace of Kyswick. — Act for e.5tab-
lishing the Protestant succession. — Death of
William.

While the ancient Irish nation lay in
this miserable condition of utter nullity,
the Protestant colony continued its efforts
to A'indicate its independence of the Im-
perial Parliament, but Avithout much suc-
cess. Not only was its parliament com-
pelled to send over to London the “heads”
of its bills to be ratified there, but the
British Parliament still persisted in exer-
cising an original jurisdiction in Ireland,
and to bind that kingdom by laAvs made
in England, Avithout any concurrence
asked or obtained from the colonial legis-
lature. It Avas alAvays the firm resolve,
both of the king and of the peojile of Eng-
land, to deny and trample upon these as-
sumed pretensions of their colony in Ire-
land to be an independent kingdom.

The reader AAdll suppose that the Eng-
lish government should not have been very
jealous of any power Avith Avhich the Pro-
testant Ascendency might be armed, Avhen
they so faithfully turned those arms
against the civil and religious liberties of
their Catholic countrymen. The Irish
Parliament, hoAvever, presumed rather toa
much on its past services to England.
Though they Avere so obedient as to forge
chains for the Catholics, they should not
fiatter themselves Avith the liberty of
making their oaa'h laAA's or regulating their
OAvn slaves. They Avere, for the future,
to consider themselves as the humbled
agents of an English Government, prompt
at every call Avhich national jealousy
Avould giA'e to inflict or to suspend the
torture.

In short, the Irish Protestant Ascen-
dency Avas soon to be taught that it Avas
the mere agent of English empire, and
must aspire to no other freedom than the
freedom to oppress and trample upon the
ancient Irish nation. “ Your ancestors,”
said Mr. Curran to the Irish Parliament a

28

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

hundred years after — “ Your ancestors
thought themselves the oppressors of
their fellow-subjects — but they were only
their gaolers ; and the justice of Provi-
dence would have been frustrated if their
own slavery had not been the punishment
of their vice and of their folly.” This
appeared very plainly Avhen Mr. William
jNIolyneux, one of the members for Dublin
University, published, in 1098, Ids work
entitled ••The case of Ireland being bound
by Acts of Parliament in England stated,”
a production Avhich owes its fame rather
to the indignant sensation it made in
England, than to any iieculiar merits of
its own. It iirofessed to discuss the
jirinciples of government and of human
society, and Avas, in fact, more abstrate
and metaphysical than legal. It is said
that Mr. Molyneux, avIio Avas an intimate
friend of John Locke, had found his
principles in the AA’ritings of that philoso-
pher, and had even submitted his manu-
script to ^Ir. Locke’s approval. The es-
sential part of the book, liOAveA'er, and the
only practical part, Avas the distinct asser-
tion of the independent poAv^er of the Irish
Parliament, as the legislature of a so-
vereign state ; and consequent denial of
the right claimed and exercised by the
English Parliament to bintl Ireland by its
OAvn enactments. The book at once at-
tracted much attention, and Avas speedily
replied to by two Avriters, named Carey
and AtAvood. A committee of the Eng-
lish Parliament Avas then appointed to
examine the obno.xious pamphlet, and on
the report of that committee, it Avas un-
animously resoh'ed •* that the said book
Avas of dangerous consequence to the
crown, and to the people of England,” etc.
The House, in a body, presented an ad-
dress to the king, setting forth Avhat they
called the bold and pernicious assertions
contained in the aforesaid publication,
Avhich they declared to have been
‘Tnore fully and authentically affirmed
by the Amtes and proceedings of the
Ilouse of Commons in Ireland, during
their late sessions, and more particu-
larly by a bill transmitted under the
great seal of Ireland, entitled ‘ An act for
the better security of his majesty’s person
and government ;’ Avhereby an act of par-
liament made in England Avas pretended
to be re-enacted, and divers alterations
therein made ; and they assured his ma-
jesty of their ready concurrence and as-
sistance to preserve and maintain the
dei)endence and subordination of Ireland
to the imperial croAvn of this realm ; and
they humbly besought his majesty that
he Avould discourage all things Avhich
might in any degree lessen or impair that

dependence.” The king promptly replied
“ that he Avould take care that Avhat Avas
complained of might be prevented and re-
dressed as the Commons desired.” Such
Avas the extreme political depression of
Ireland, that this haughty procedure oc-
casioned no A'isible resentment in her par-
liament, although the leaven of the doc-
trines of iMolyneux Avas still Avorking in
men’s minds ; Avas afterwards improvea
by SAvift and Lucas, and at length became
irresistible, and ripened into an indepen-
dent Irish Parliament in 1782. Mean-
time the proscribed Catholics took no in-
terest in the controversy at all, and seemed
insensible to its progress. As the ex-
cellent Charles O’Conor, of Ilelanagar,
aftei’Avards in the midst of the commotions
excited by Lucas, AA'rote to a friend : •• I
am by no means interested, nor is any of
our unfortunate i)opulation, in this affair
of Lucas. A true patriot Avould not have
betrayed such malice toAvanls such un-
fortunate sla\-es as Ave.” And he truly
adds, “These boasters, the Whigs. Avish
to haA'e liberty all to themselves.” In
short, the tAvo parties then existing in
Ireland, and termed the court and country
parties, Avere divided mainly upon this
question : Is the conquered nation to be
governed and exploited for the sole benefit
of the colonial interest or, Are all in-
terests in Ireland, both colonial and na-
tive, both Protestant and Catholic, to be
subserA'ient and tributary to England ?
Candour requires it to be stated that of
these tAvo parties, the (;ourt and the coun-
try, the former Avas rather more favourable
to the doAvn-trodden Catholics ; a fact of
Avhich scA'eral examples Avill soon haA'e to
be related. At that moment the court
party held the SAvay, and the English
Parliament ruled all.

The English Avere not disposed to let
their predominance remain Avithout prac-
tical fruits, as appeared in the proceedings
touching the AA'oollen trade of Ireland.
During the feAv first years of William’s
reign, there being then abundance of
sheep in Ireland, and also much cheap
labour, considerable progress Avas made in
the manufacture of AA'oollen cloths ; these
fabrics Avcre exported in some quantity to
foreign countries, and in maiiA' cases the
Irish manufacturer Avas enabled to under-
sell the English. But England Avas then
using great exertions to obtain the entire
control of this gainful trade ; and the
competition of Ireland gaA'e great um-
brage. It is true that the Avoollen-traile
in Ireland, and all the profits of its export
and sale, Avere in the hands of the Eng-
lish colonists, and that the colonial parlia-
ment in Dublin Avould fain have extended

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

20

and protected it if they had been per-
mitted. Bnt here, again, the English
power stepped in, and controlled every
thing according to its own interest. The
two Houses of I^ords and Commons ad-
dressed King William, urging that some
immediate remedy must be found against
the obnoxious trade in Ireland. The
Lords, after detailing the intolerable op-
liression Avhich Avas inflicted upon deserv'-
ing industrious people in England, ex-
pressed themselves thus : “ Wherefore,
Ave most humbly beseech your most sacred
majesty, that your majesty Avould be
pleased, in the most public and effectual
Avay that may be, to declare to all your
subjects of Ireland, that the groAvth and
increase of the Avoollen manufacture that
hath long been, and Avill be ever, looked
upon Avith great jealousy by all your sub-
jects of this kingdom, and if not timely
remedied, may occasion very strict hiAvs
totally to prohihit and snppress the same”
Probably no more shameless avoAval of
British greediness Avas ever made, even by
the parliament of England. But the king
replied at once that ‘Hie Avould do all that
in him lay to discourage the Avoollen
manufacture of Ireland;” in other Avords,
to ruin his subjects of that island. The
Irish Parliament Avas noAv also assembled in
Dublin. The Earl of Gahvayand two others
Avere lords-justices ; and they, pursuant to
their instructions, recommeiKled to parlia-
ment to adopt means for putting a stop to
the Avoollen manufacture, and to en-
courage the linen. The Commons, in their
address, meekly replied, that “ they shall
heartily endeavour” to encourage the
linen trade ; and as to the Avoollen, they
tamely express their hojie to find such a
temperament that the same may not be
injurious to England. The teni])erament
they found Avas in the acts Avhich Avere
jiassed in the folloAving year, IGDb, Avhich
minutely regulated eA’-erything relating to
Avool. In the first place, all export of
Irish Avoollen cloths Avas prohibited, except
to England and AY ales. The exception
Avas delusive, because heavy duties,
amounting to a prohibition, prevented
Irish cloth from being imported into
England or AY ales. Irish avooI, there-
after, had to be sent to England in a raAv
state, to be AA-^oven in Yorkshire; and even
this export Avas cramped by appointing
one single English port, Barnstable, as
the only point where it could legally
enter. All attempts at foreign commerce
in Ireland Avere at this time impeded, also,
by the “ Navigation LaAvs,” Avhich had
long prohibited all direct trade betAveen
Ireland and the colonies ; no colonial pro-
duce. under those laAvs, could be carried

to Ireland until after it should haA'e first
entered an English port, and been un-
loaded there. The object of these laAvs,
of course, Avas to secure to English mer-
chants and shipoAvners a monopoly of all
such trade, and they had the desired
effect, so that a fcAv years afterAvards, the-
Dean of St. Patrick’s could truly Avrite :
“ The conveniency of ports and harbours,
Avhich nature liad bestoAA^ed so liberally
upon this kingdom, is of no more use to.
us than a beautiful prospect to a man
shut up in a dungeon.”

It is noticeable that these navigation
acts Avere not new ; they had existed be-
fore the last Kevolution, and had been
repealed by the excellent parliament of
1G80, under King James, consisting in-
differently of Catholics and Protestants,
and really representing an Irish nation — •
that same parliament AAdiich had also
enacted perfect liberty for all religions,
and had sAvept aAvay a most foTil mass of
penal hiAvs from the statute-book ; but on
the failure of the cause of the Stuarts, all
the enactments of that piarliament AAmre
ignored, and the penal hiAvs and restric-
tions on trade re-appeared in full force.

AYith such a deliberate system in full
operation, not only to putdoAvn the political
])retensions, but to destroy the trade of
Ireland, and all enforced directly by Eng-
lish statutes, it Avill be seen that the
country party, Avhich so proudly claimed
national independence, had but very slen-
der chances at that time. Another eA'cnt
still further illustrated this fact. The
English Parliament,Avhich Avas continually
importuned by the king for grants of
money to carry on his darling Avar against
Louis XI Y., found that the immense
amount of confiscated lands, forfeited by
the “ rebellion” (as the national Avar Avas
called), had been squandered upon King
AAHlliam’s faAmurites, or leased at in-
sufficient rents, also a small portion of it
restored to its OAAmers Avho had satisfied
the government that they AA-ere innocent.
That parliament therefore resolved, be-
fore making any more grants of money,
to impaire hoAV the forfeitures had been
made aAaiilable for the public serAuce. A
commission Avas appointed by a A'ote of
parliament for this purpose, and at the
same time to provide for a grant of a
million and a half sterling, for military
and naval expenses. The form of thi."
commission Avas itself an intimation that
nothing less Avas contemplated than re
sumption of all the lands granted by
special favour of the king. This Avas very
hard upon his majesty, and he regarded
the proceeding Avith sour and silent dis-
pleasure ; for, in fact, he had granted out

30

HISTORY OF IKEL/^lXD.

of these forfeitures immense estates to
William Bentinck, whom he created Lord
Woodstock, to Grinkell, Lord Athlone, and
others of his Dutch friends especially,
he had bestowed over 95, GOO acres on Mrs.
Elizabeth Yilliers, Countess of Orkney, a
lady who. in the words of Lord Macaulay,
“had inspired William with a passion
wliich had caused much scandal and un-
happiness in the little court of the Hague”
— where, in fact, his lawful wife resided.
If the consideration of the grant was of
the kind here intimated, it must be allowed
that William paid the lady royally, out of
others’ estates. The commissioners fur-
ther report great corruption and bribery
in the matter of procuring pardons,
and astonishing Avaste and destruction,
especially of the line Avoods, Avhicli had
coA'ered AAnde regions of the island. The
drift of their rei^ort is, that the Avhole of
the dealings Avitli those confiscated lands
AA'ere one foul and monstrous job.

Here, it is to be remarked that this in-
<iuir3’ and report Avere by no means in the
interest of the plundered Catholics, the
right OAA’ners of all those estates ; on tlie
contrary, one of the points dAvelt on most
bitterly by the commissioners Avas the
restoration of a small portion of them to
Catholic proprietors, under AA'hat the com-
missioners considered delusiA’e pretences ;
and the resumption Avhich they contem-
plated Avas to haA'e the effect of again tak-
ing aAvay those Avrecks and remnants of
the propertA^ of Catholics AAdiich had been
redeemed out of the general ruin. The
English House of Commons, in a A'iolent
ferment, immediately resol A*ed “ that a
bill be brought in to apply all the forfeited
estates and interests in Ireland, and all
grants thereof, and of the rents and re-
venues belonging to the crown Avithin
that kingdom since the 13th Eebruary,
1689, to the use of the public.” Then a
“Court of Delegates” Avas appointed to
determine claims ; and it AA*as resoh^ed by
the House “ that they Avould not receiA^e
any petitions AA^hatever against the pro-
A'isions of this bill.” The report of the
commission had been signed only by four
commissioners out of seA'en, namely, by
Annesley, Trenchard, Hamilton, and
Langford, the other three liaA'ing dis-
sented. The House, therefore, came to
the resolution, “ that Erancis Annesley,
John Ti’cnchard, James Hamilton, and
Henr}’- Langford, Esqs., had acquitted
theinseh-es A\Tth understanding, courage,
and integrity ; Adiich Avas an implied cen-
sure on the Earl of Drogheda, Sir Francis
BrcAvster, and Sir Bichard LeAinge, the
three dissentient commissioners ; and the
House AA'eiit so far as to vote Sir Kichard

Levinge to be the author of certain
groundless and scandalous aspersions res-
pecting the commissioners aaTio had signed
the report, and to commit him, thereupon,
prisoner to the ToAver. There Avere long
and acrimonious debates upon this ques-
tion ; a sharp address to the king, in pur-
suance of the sense of the majority, and a
submissiA'e ansAA'er from his majesty, de-
claring that he Avas not led by inclination,
but thought himself obliged, in justice,
to reAA'ard those avIio had sei’A'ed Avell.
and particularly in the reduction of
Ireland, out of the estates forfeited
to him by the rebellion there. And the
House resolved, in reph*, that Avhoever
adA'ised his majesty’s ausAver to the Ad-
dress of the House has used his utmost
endeaA'our to create a misunderstanding
and jealousy between the king and his
people.” The “ Bill of llesumption” of
the forfeited estates finally passed, after
A'ehement opposition, and received the re-
luctant royal assent on the 11th of Ai)ril,
1700, on Avhich day his majesty prorogued
the Houses, Arithout any speech, thinking
there Avas no room for the usual expres-
sions of satisfaction and gratitude ; and
not choosing to gHe any public proof of
discontent or resentment. In all these
parliamentary disputes there Avas not the
least question of the rights or claims of
any Irish Catholic ; nor does it appear that
there Avould haA'e been the slightest op-
position to any scheme AAdiich concerned
merely the resumption of lands restored
to them. The biographer of William re-
marks, “ that no transaction during the
reign of this monarch so pressed upon his
spirits, or so humbled his pride, as the
resumption of the grants of the forfeited
estates in Ireland by the English Parlia-
ment.” This may be easily believed ; but
it is to be remarked, that Ave find no such
opinion from King William’s enthusiastic
biograijher AA'hen he Avas called on to set
his seal to the legislative A'iolations of the
Treaty of Limerick. He could ill bear
to depri\^e his Dutch courtiers of their
Irish estates ; but it Acasof small moment to
him to beggar and oppress millions of Irish-
men, in violation of his oaaui plighted faith.

In his priA'ate despatches to Lord Gal-
Avay, shortly after the rising of parlia-
ment, the king says : “ You may judge
Avhat vexation all their extraordinary pro-
ceedings gave me ; and I assure you, your
being deprived of Avhat I gave you Avirh
so much pleasure is not the least of my
griefs. I never had more occasion than
at present for persons of your capacity
and fidelitA'. I hope I shall find oppor-
I tunities to give you marks of my esteem
i and friendship.”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

31

The short remainder of William’s reign
■was occupied chiefly -with negotiations on
the continent ; and with oscillations of
his policy between the Whig and Tory
parties ; according to the use which he
thought he could make of those parties
respectively in promoting his views
against France — the only use which he
could ever see in English parties, to say
nothing of Irish ones. The peace of
llyswick was signed in 1G97 ; but in 1701,
King James died at St. Germains ; and
liis son (afterwards called the Pretender)
was recognized as King James III. of
England by the king and court of France,
who paid their visits of condolence and
congratulation at the Court of St. Ger-
mains. King William immediately re-
called his ambassador from Paris ; and
again there was the evident and imminent
necessity of a new war with France ;
which was all that King William lived
for. He was not, however, to live much
longer.

The death of the young Duke of Glou-
cester, son of the Princess Anne, about
the same time with that of King J ames
II., gave occasion to the Act of Parlia-
ment—the last act of this reign— by which
the crown of England was settled on the
House of Hanover, after the demise of
Anne. This act was repeated, as it were,
mechanically, by the servile parliam.ent of
the Irish colony. But though a highly
important settlement of the sovereign
authority, it does not seem to have
aroused the smallest interest in the mass
of the Irish people. It seemed now to be
their opinion, and indeed the opinion was
just, that it mattered nothing to them for
the future whether Stuarts or Hanoverians
should rule in England. They had had
bitter experience of the one dynasty ;
and did not know that they were yet to
have a more terrible experience of the
other.

King William had fallen into very bad
health ; but still occupied himself in vast
projects concerning his great concern,
“ the destinies of Europe.” His speech,
on the assembling of his last parliament,
the last day of the year 1701, will show
how his active mind was occupied to the
last. “ I persuade myself,” said the king,
“ that you are met together, full of that
just sense of the common danger of
Europe, and that resentment of the late
proceedings of the French king, which
has been so fully and universally exi)ressed
in the loyal and seasonable addresses of my
people. The eyes of all Europe are upon
this parliament ; all matters are at a stand
till your resolutions are known. Let me
conjure you to disappoint the only hopes

of our enemies by your unanimity. I have
shown, and Avill always show, how desirous
I am to be the common father of all my
people. Do you, in like manner, lay aside
parties and divisions. Let there be no
other distinction heard of among us for
the future, but of those who are for the
Protestant religion and the present estab-
lishment, and of those who mean a popish
prince and a French government. If you
do in good earnest desire to see England
hold the balance of Europe, and to be in-
deed at the liead of the Protestant interest,
it will appear by your right improving
the present opportunity.” The king
meant by voting large supplies for war
with France. But King William was at
the end of his wars; lie was destined never
to make any more of his famous retreats
before French marshals ; and he died in
little more than two months after this
speech, 8th of March, 1702, his death hav-
ing been hastened by a fall from his horse
ill riding from Kensington to Hampton
Court. His death was little regretted,
save in Holland, b}^ anybody ; even by ihe
squires of the “ Ascendency” in Ireiand,
who long toasted in their cups his
“ glorious, pious, and immortal memory.”
He had no personal quality that could en-
dear him to any human being, unless the
common quality of personal bravery may
be so accounted. His religion was hatred
to Papists ; his fair fame was stained by
faithlessness and cruelty, and he will be
forever named in history, tlie Treaty-
breaker of Limerick and the assassin of
Glencoe.

CHAPTER V.

1702—1701.

Queen Anne. — Rochester lord-lieutenant. — Ormond
lord-lieutenant. — War on the continent. — Successes
under IMarlboi-ough. — Second formal breach of the
Treaty of Limerick. — Bill to prevent the further
growth of Popery. — Clause against the Dissenters.
— Catholic lawyers heard against the bill. — Plead-
ing of Sir Toby Butler. — Bill passed. — Object of
the Penal Laws — To get hold of the property of
Catholics. — Recall of the Edict of Nantes. — Irish
on the continent. — Cremona.

The Princess Anne, generally called at
that time Anne of Denmark, because she
was the Avife of the Prince of Denmark,
succeeded William on the throne of the
throe kingdoms. She was the daughter of
King James II., in vindication of Avhose
rights the Irish nation had fought so
desperately, and suffered so cruelly. She
Avas acknoAvledged as queen, avoAvedly as

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the last of her race, by virtue of the act
establishing the succession in the House
of Hanover ; and her brother was an at-
tainted and proscribed outlaw. But if the
Irish people had imagined that any Stuart,
or indeed any English sovereign, could
eicher be moved by gratitude for their
loyal service, or stung by resentment
against the dominant Whig party, which
ruined and degraded the Stuart family, to
the point of interposing or interceding on
behalf of the oppressed Catholics, they
would have been grossly deceived. In
truth they had no such hope or expecta-
tion. They were as indifferent to the
Stuarts noAv as the Stuarts were to them ;
and except some Irish officers on the con-
tinent, Avho still put their trust in a
counter-revolution, none of the Irish took
the smallest interest in the new settlement
of the throne, nor cared whether a de-
scendant of the Stuarts or of the Electress
of Hanover should reign over England.

King William had died just at the mo-
ment Avhen his able policy had succeeded
in uniting the power of the Germanic
Empire with that of England and Holland,
for another war against Louis. Three
days after her accession, the queen
repaired in person, with the usual pomp
and solemnity, to the House of Peers, and
made a speech from the throne, expressing
her fixed resolution to prosecute the
measures concerted by the late king,
Avhom she styled ” llie great support, not
only of these kingdoms, but of all Eu-
rope.” And she declared “ that too much
could not be done for the encouragement
of our allies, and to reduce the exorbitant
I>ower of Erance.” In the conclusion of
her speech she took occasion to protest

that her heart Avas truly English,” Avhich
Avas considered a studied affront to the
memory of the late king, Avhose heart Avas
Dutch ; but the allusion probably only
added to her popularity. Her most in-
fluential counsellors, at first, Avere the
Earls of IMarlborough and Godolphin,
Avho Avere eager for the most vigorous
prosecution of the Avar. Lord Godolphin
Avas appointed Lord High Treasiirer, and
IMarlborough Captain- General of the
forces of England at home and abroad.
War Acas declared against Erance simul-
taneously on the same day at London,
Vienna, and the Hague.

Lord Bochester Avas then Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Ireland. He Avas of the Tory
]>arty, much averse to the Avar, and loud
in his denunciations of it. But his pro-
tests at the count il-board ha\'ing been
disregarded, he retired in high indignation
to his country-seat. Shortly afterwards a
message from the queen Avas despatched

to him, commanding him to repair to his-
government of Ireland, Avhereupon he
insolently declared that he would not go
if the queen gave him the Avhole country.”^
The earl then Avaited on her majesty, and
resigned his office, Avhich aa'es immediately
conferred upon the Duke of Ormond ; an
evil omen for Ireland Avhen one of the
name of Butler Avas appointed to rule OA^er
her. But the duke did not come to
Dublin for that year, as he Avas employed
in military service abroad ; this island Avas
therefore, as usual, placed under the
gOA'ernment of three lords-justices. Lord
IMount Alexander, General Erie, and Mr.
Knightley.

The military operations began Avith the
siege of Kaisarswart, a strong place on
the Khine. The Prince of Xassau-Saar-
bruck conducted the siege, and Ginkell,
noAv“Earl of Athlone,” commanded the
covering army. The place capitulated on
the 15th of June. Shortly after, the Earl
of Marlborough came over from England
to take the command of the allied army ;
and entered upon that career of brilliant
achievements Avhich entitled him to
rank as the first soldier of his time.
Unfortunately the English arms Avere
successful in this campaign ; and the
unfailing result folloAved — a neAv code of
laAvs to still further beggar and torture
the Irish. It is an irksome and painful
task to pursue the details of that terrible
penal code ; but the penal code is the
history of Ireland. The Duke of Ormond,
after an unsuccessful attempt upon Cadiz,
and a prosperous one upon the Spanish
fieet in the harbour of Vigo, in Spain,
came over to his government in Ireland,
Avhere the Irish Commons in a body, pre-
sented to him the first of the famous bills
“ to prevent the further groAvth of Popery.”
The House, says Burnett, “pressed the
duke Avith more than usual A-ehemence, to
intercede so effectually that it might be
returned back under the great seal of
England.” His grace Avas pleased to gHe
his promise “that he Avould recommend it
in tlie most effectual manner, and do
every thing in his poAver to prevent the
groAvth of Popery.”

One might indeed suppose that “Popery”^
had been already sufficiently discouraged ;
seeing that the bishops and regular clergy
had been banished ; that Catholics Avere
excluded by laAV from all honourable oi*
lucrative employments ; carefully dis-
armed and plundered of almost every acre
of their ancient inheritances. But enough
had not yet been done to make the “ Pro-
testant interest” feel secure. The pro-
visions of this bill “ to prevent the further
groAvth of Popery,” Avhich Avere so Avarmly

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

33

recommended by the Duke of Ormond,
are shortly these : the third clause enacts
that if the son of a Papist shall at any
time become a Protestant, his father may
not sell or mortgage his estate, or dispose
of it, or any portion of it, by Avill. The
fourth clause provides that a Papist shall
not be guardian to his own child ; and fur-
ther, tliat if his child, no matter how
young, conforms to the Protestant reli-
gion, he reduces his father at once to a
tenant for life ; the child is to be taken
from its father, and placed under the
guardianship of the nearest Protestant
relation. The sixth clause renders Papists
incapable of purchasing any lauded estates,
or rents or profits arising out of land,
or holding any lease of lives, or any
other lease, for any term exceeding
thirty-one years; and even in such
leases the reserved rent must be at
least “one-third of the improved annual
value any Protestant who discovers being
entitled to the interest in the lease. The
seventh clause prohibits Papists from suc-
ceeding to the property of their Protestant
relations. The tenth clause provides that
the estate of a Papist who has no Protest-
ant heir shall he gaoelled ; that is, parcelled
in equal shares between all his children.
Other clauses impose on Catholics the oath
of abjuration and the sacramental test, to
qualify for any othcc or for voting at any
election. After several further clauses
relating to qualification for office, which
were not of very great importance— as no
Catholic then aspired to any office — come
the 15th, IGdi, and 17th clauses, which
carefully deprive the citizens of Limerick
and Galway of the poor privilege promised
them in the treaty, of living in their own
towns and carrying on their trade there,
which, it Avill be remembered, was grie-
vously complained of by the Protestant
residents as a wrong and opi)ression upon
them.

When this bill was sent to England it
somewhat embarrassed the court. Queen
Anne was then in firm alliance with the
great Catholic power of Austria, and the
English Government, with its usual hypo-
critical affectation of liberality, was ever
pressing the emperor for certain indul-
gences to his Protestant subjects. Yet the
bill was not objected to on the part of the
crown ; it was, in fact, thought then, as it
is thought now — and with justice— that
what is done in Ireland is done in a corner;
and that England might continue to play
her part as champion of religious liberty
in the world, Avhile she herself went to the
uttermost extremities of intolerant atro-
city in Ii eland. The bill Avas sent back
ax)proved, in order that it might be passed

by the Irish Parliament ; and the only
modification it received in England was
actually an additional clause, imposing
still further penalties and disabilities.
This clause was levelled against the Pro-
testant Dissenters, avIio were already a
numerous and wealthy body, especially in
Ulster ; and was to the effect that none in
Ireland should be capable of any employ-
ment, or of being in the magistracy of any
city, who did not qualify by receiving the
sacrament according to the rites of the
Church of England ; according to the Test
Act, Avhich had till then been applicable
only to that kingdom, and had never yet
been imposed upon Ireland. It has been
alleged by the friends of the Government of
Queen Anne, that the Administration in-
vented this plan, hoping that it would de-
feat the bill altogether. Bishop Burnet, in
his history of his own Times, says, “ It was
hoped, by those avIio got this clause added
to the bill, that those in Ireland who ijro-
moted it most, would uoav be the less fond
of it, Avhen it had such a weight hung to it.”
If it be indeed true that the government in-
tended to defeat the bill by this underhand
method, the plan did not succeed. Nothing
was too savage for the “Ascendency,”
provided only that it was to aggrieve and
oppress the Catholics ; and for the same
great object, the Dissenters themselves,
though they remonstrated at first by
petition, soon meekly acquiesced in their
own exclusion and disabilities. The law
was to ruin the Catholics ; and that was
enough for them.

On the return of the bill to Ireland, and
before its iiassage in Dublin, certain
Catholics prayed to be heard by counsel
in opposition to it. They were Nicholas
Viscount Kingsland, Colonel J. Brown,
Colonel Burke, Colonel Robert Nugent,
Colonel Patrick Allen, Captain French,
and other Catholics of Limerick and Gal-
Avay. Their petition Avas granted ; and i]i
pursuance of that order, three advocates
for the Catholics appeared at the bar of
the House of Commons. They AA^ere Sir
Theobald Butler, Counsellor Malone, and
Sir Stephen Rice ; the two first in their
gowns, the third Avithout a gOAvn, as he
appeared not for the petitioners in general,
but for himself in his priwate capacity, as
one of the aggrieved persons. It is to be
observed that these Catholic laAvyers Avere
themseh’es “protected persons,” Avithin
the meaning of the Articles of Limerick ;
and that they Avere pleading on that day
not only for their clients, but for them-
selves— for their own liberty to plead in
court and to Avear their gOAvns. It Aiaas a
very remarkable scene ; and as it forms
an era in the historj" of Irish penal laAvs,
C

34

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

•\ve shall insert here the main part of the
excellent argumentative appeal of Sir
Theobald Butler, as it is abstracted in
several histories of the time.* The speaker
oj)ens, of course, by laying great stress
upon the Articles of Limerick ; he pro-
ceeds thus :

“ That since the said articles were thus
under the most solemn ties, and for such
valuable considerations granted the peti-
tioners, by nothing less than the general
of the army, the lords-justices of the
kingdom, the king, queen, and parliament,
the public faith of the nation was therein
concerned, obliged, bound, and engaged,
as fully and firmly as Avas possible for
one people to pledge faith to another ;
that therefore this Parliament could not
pass such a bill as that intituled An Act
to prevent the further growth of Popery,
then before the House, into a laAv, Avithout
infringing those articles, and a manifest
breach of the public faith ; of AAdiich he
hojAed that House Avould be no less regard-
ful and tender than their predecessors Avho
made the act for confirming those articles
had been.

That if heproAmd that the passing that
act AA*as such a manifest breach of those
articles, and consequently of the public
faith, he hoped that honourable House
Avould be A^ery tender hoAv they passed the
said bill before them into a hiAv ; to the
apparent prejudice of the petitioners, and
the hazard of bringing upon themselves
and posterity such eA'ils, reproach, and in-
famy as the doing the like had brought
upon other nations and people.

“ NoA\q that the passing such a bill as
that then before the House to preA^ent the
further growth of Popery will be a breach
of those articles, and consequently of the
public faith, I i^rove (said he) by the fol-
loAving argument :

“ The argument then is (said he) Avhat-
ever shall be enacted to the prejudice or
destroying of any obligation, coA’enant, or
contract, in the most solemn manner, and
for the most valuable consideration entered
into, is a manifest A'iolation and destruc-
tion of CA'ery such obligation, coA’enant,
and contract : but the passing that bill in-
to a laAv Avill evidently and absolutely
destroy the Articles of Limerick and Gal-
Avay, to all intents and purposes, and there-
fore the passing that bill into a laAV Avill
be such a breach of those articles, and con-
sequently of the public faith, plighted for
I)erforming those articles ; Avhich remained
to be proved.

“ The major is proA’-ed (said he), for that
AvhateA'er destroys or violates any contract,

* It Avill be found at full length in Plowden’s Ap-
pendix and in Curry's Historical Review.

or obligation, upon the most valuable con-
siderations, most solemnly made and en-
tered into, destroys and A'iolates the end of
ev'ery such contract or obligation : but the
end and design of those articles Avas,
that all those therein comprised, and
every of their heirs, should hold, possess,
and enjoy all and e\'ery of their estates of
freehold and inheritance, and all the rights,
titles, and interests, privileges, and im-
munities, Avhich they and every of them
held, enjoyed, or Avere rightfully intituled
to, in the reign of King Charles the Se-
cond ; or at any time since, by the laAvs
and statutes that Avere in force in the said
reign in this realm : but that the design
of this bill AA-as to take aAvay e\'ery such
right, title, interest, &c., from eA'ery father
being a Papist, and to make the Poi)isii
father, avIio, by the articles and hnvs
aforesaid, had an undoubted right either
to sell or otheiwise at pleasure to dispose
of his estate, at any time of his life, as
he thought fit, only tenant for life : and
consequently disabled from selling, or
otherAAuse disposing thereof, after his son
or other heir should become Protestant,
though otherAA'ise never so disobedient,
profligate, or extraA'agant : ergo, this act
tends to the destroying the end for Avhicli
those articles AA'ere made, and consequently
the breaking of the public faith, plighted
for their performance.

“ The minor is proved hy the 3d, 4th,
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, and
17th clauses of the said bill, all AThicli
(said he) I shall consider and speak to, in
the order as they are placed in the bill.

“ By the first of these clauses (Avhich is
the third of the bill), I that am the
Popish father, AA'ithout committing any
crime against the state, or the laAvs of the
land (by Avhich only I ought to be go-
verned), or any other fault ; but merely
for being of the religion of my forefathers,
and that Avhich, till of late years, Avas the
ancient religion of these kingdoms, con-
trary to the express Avords of the second
Article of Limerick, and the public faith,
plighted as aforesaid for their perform
ance, am depriA-ed of my inheritance
freehold, &c., and of all other adAxantage
Avhich by those articles and the laAvs o
the land I am entitled to enjoy, equally
Avith eA-ery other of my felloAA'-subjects,
Avhether Protestant or Popish. And
though such my estate be even the pur-
chase of my OAvn hard labour and industry,
yet I shall not (though my occasions be
never so pressing) have liberty (after my
eldest son or other heir becomes a Pro-
testant) to sell, mortgage, or othenvise
dispose of, or charge it for payment of my
debts, or have leave out of my OAvn estate

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

35

to order portions for my other children ;
or leave a legacy, though never so small,
to my poor father or mother, or other poor
relations ; but during my OAvn life my
estate shall be given to my son or other
heir being a Protestant, though never so
undutiful, profligate, extravagant, or
otherwise undeserving ; and I that am the
purchasing father, shall become tenant for
life only to my own purchase, inheritance
and freehold, which I purchased with my
own money ; and such my son or other
heir, by this act, shall be at liberty to sell
or otherwise at pleasure to dispose of my
estate, the sweat of my brows, before my
face ; and I that am the purchaser, shall
not have liberty to raise one farthing upon
the estate of my own purchase, either to
pay my debts, or portion my daughters (if
any I have), or make provisions for my
other male children, though never so de-
serving and dutiful : but my estate, and
the issues and profits of it, shall, before
my face, be at the disposal of another,
Avho cannot possibly know how to dis-
tinguish between the dutiful and unduti-
ful, deserving and undeserving. Is not
this, gentlemen (said he), a hard case?
I beseech you, gentlemen, to consider,
whether you would not think it so, if the
scale was changed, and the case your own,
as it is like to be ours, if this bill pass into
a laAv,

“It is natural for the father to love the
child ; but we all know (says lie) that
children are but too apt and subject, with-
out any such liberty as that bill gives, to
slight and neglect their duty to their
parents ; and surely such an act as this
will not be an instrument of restraint, but
rather encourage them more to it.

“It is but too common with the son
who has a prospect of an estate, when
once he arrives at the age of one-and-
twenty, to think the old father too long in
the way between him and it ; and how
much more Avill he be subject to it, when
by this act he shall have liberty, before he
comes to that age, to compel and force my
estate from me, without asking my leave,
or being liable to account with mo for it,
or out of his share thereof, to a moiety of
the debts, portions, or other incumbrances,
with which the estate might have been
charged, before the passing this act.

“ Is not this against the laws of God and
man; against the rules of reason and justice,
by which all men ought to be governed ?
Is not this the only way in the world to
make children become undutiful, and to
bring the grey head of the parent to the
grave with grief and tears ?

“ It would be hard from an^^ man ; but
from a son, a child, the fruit of my body.

whom I have nursed in my bosom and
tendered more dearly than my own life, to
become my plunderer, to rob me of my
estate, to cut my throat, and to take away
my bread, is much more grievous than
from any other ; and enough to make the
most flinty of hearts to bleed to think on’t.
And yet this will be the case if this bill
pass into a law ; which I hope this honour-
able assembly will not think of when they
shall more seriously consider, and have
weighed these matters.

“ Tor God’s sake, gentlemen, will you
consider whether this is according to the
golden rule, to do as you would be done
unto ? And if not, surely you will not,
nay you cannot, without being liable to be
charged with the most manifest injustice
imaginable, take from us our birthrights,
and invest them in others before our faces.

“By the 4th clause of the bill, the popish
father is under the penalty of £500 de-
barred from being guardian to, or having
the tuition or custody of his own child or
children : but if the child pretends to be a
Protestant, though never so young or in-
capable of judging of the principles of re-
ligion, it shall be taken from its own father
and put into the hands or care of a Pro-
testant relation, if any there be qualified
as this act directs, for tuition, though never
so great an enemy to the popish parent ;
and for Avant of relations so qualified, into
the hands and tuition of such Protestant
stranger as the court of chancery shall
think fit to appoint ; Avho perhaps may
likewise be my enemy, and out of pre-
judice to me Avho am the popish father,
shall infuse into my child not only such
principles of religion as are Avholly incon-
sistent with my liking, but also against
the duty which, by the laAvs of God and
nature, is due from every child to its
parents : and it shall not be in my power
to remedy, or question him for it ; and
yet I shall be obliged to pay for such edu-
cation, how pernicious soever. Nay, if a
legacy or estate fall to any of my chil-
dren, being minors, I that am the popish
father shall not have the liberty to
take care of it, but it shall be put into
the hands of a stranger ; and though I
see it confounded before my face, it shall
not be in my poAver to help it. Is not this
a hard case, gentlemen ? I am sure you
cannot but allow it to be a A^ery hard case.

“ The 5 th clause pro Andes that no Pro-
testant or Protestants, haAung any estate,
real or personal, AA’ithin this kingdom,
shall at any time after the 24th of March,
1703, intermarry Avith any Papist, either
in or out of this kingdom, under the pen-
alties in act made in the 9th of King
William, intituled, An Act to preA^ent

36

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Protestants intermarrying with Papists ;
which penalties, see in the 5th clause of
the act itself.

“ Surely, gentlemen, this is such a laAv
as was never heard of before, and against
the law of right and the law of nations ;
and therefore a law which is not in the
power of mankind to make without break-
ing through the laws which our wise an-
cestors prudently provided for the security
of posterity, and which you cannot infringe
without hazarding the undermining the
whole legislature, and encroaching upon
the privileges of your neighbouring na-
tions, which it is not reasonable to believe
they will allow.

“ It has indeed been known, that there
hath been laws made in England that have
been binding in Ireland : but surely it never
was known that any law made in Ireland
could affect England or any other country.
But by this act, a person committing ma-
trimony (an ordnance of the Almighty) in
England or any other part beyond the seas
(where it is lawful both by the laws of God
and man to do so), if ever they come to
live in Ireland, and have an inheritance or
title to any interest to the value of 500/.,
they shall be punished for a fact consonant
with the laws of the land where it tvas com-
mitted. Eut,gentlemen,by your favour, this
is what, with submission, is not in your
power to do ; for no law that either now
is, or that hereafter shall be in force in this
kingdom, shall be able to take cognizance
of any fact committed in another nation ;
nor can any one nation make laws for any
other nation, but what is subordinate to it,
as Irelandis to England, but noothernation
is subordinate to Ireland ; and therefore any
laAvs made in Ireland, cannot j)unish me for
any fact committed in any other nation, but
more especially England, to whom Ireland
is subordinate : and the reason is, every
free nation, such as all our neighbouring
nations are, by the great law of nature,
and the universal privileges of all nations,
have an undoubted right to make, and be
ruled and governed by the laws of their
own making : for that to submit to any
other, would be to give away their own
birthright and native freedom, and be-
come subordinate to their neighbours, as
w^e of this kingdom, since the making of
Poyning’s Act, have been and are to Eng-
land : a right which England would never
so much as endure to hear of, much less
submit to.

“We see how careful our forefathers
have been to provide that no man should
be punished in one country (even of the
same nation) for crimes committed in an-
other country; and surely it would be
highly unreasonable, and contrary to the

laws of all nations in the whole world, to
punish me in this kingdom for a fact
committed in England, or any other
nation, which was not against, but con-
sistent with the laws of the nation where
it was committed. I am sure there is not
any law in any other nation of the world
that would do it.

“ The 6th clause of this bill is likewise
a manifest breach of the second of
Limerick Articles, for by that article all
persons comprised under those articles,
were to enjoy and have the full benefit of
all the rights, titles, privileges, and im-
munities whatsoever, which they enjoyed,
or by the laws of the land then in force,
were entitled to enjoy, in the reign of
King Charles II. And by the laws then
in force, all the Papists of Ireland had
the same liberty that any of their fellow-
subjects had to purchase any manors
lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases of
lives, or for years, rents, or any other
thing of profit Avhatsoever : but by this
clause of this bill, every Papist or person
professing the popish religion, after the
2Ith of March, 1703, is made incapable of
purchasing any manors, lands, tenements,
hereditaments, or any rents, or profits out
of the same ; or holding any lease of lives,
or any other lease whatsoever, for any
term exceeding thirty-one years ; av herein
a rent, not less than tAAm-thirds of the im -
proved yearly value, shall be reserA-^ed,
and made payable, during the Avhole term :
and therefore this clause of this bill, if
made into a laAv, Avill be a manifest breach
of those articles.

“The 7th clause is yet of much more
general consequence, and not only a like
breach of those articles, but also a mani-
fest robbing of all the Roman Catholics
of the kingdom of their birthright : for
by those articles all those therein com-
prised AA-ere (said he) pardoned all misde-
meanours AA'hatsoever, of Avhichthey hadin
any manner of Avay been guilty ; and re-
stored to all the rights, liberties, privi-
leges, and immunities AvhateA'er, Avhich,
by the laAvs of the land, and customs,
constitutions and iiatiA^e birthright, they,
any, and every of them, Avere equally
with eA'ery other of their felloAv-subjects
intituled unto. And by the hiAvs of
nature and nations, as Avell as by the laAvs
of tlie land, every natiA^e of any country
has an undoubted right and just titie to
all the priAuleges and advantages Avhich
such their native country affords : and
surely no man but Avill alloAV, that by such
a native right every one born in any
(muntry hath an undoubted right to the
inheritance of his father, or any other to
! Avhom he or they may be heir at laAV ; but

IIISTOrtV OF IRELAND.

if this bill pass into a law, every native
of this kingdom that is and shall remain
a Papist is, ipso facto, during life, or his
or their continuing a Papist, deprived of
such inheritance, devise, gift, remainder,
or trust of any lands, tenements, or
hereditaments, of which any Protestant
now is, or hereafter shall be seized in fee-
simple-absolute, or fee-tail, which by the
death of such Protestant, or his Avife,
ought to descend immediately to his son,
or sons, or other issue in tail, being such
Papists, and eighteen years of age ; or, if
under that age, Avithin six months after
coming to that age, shall not conform to
the Church of Ireland, as by law estab-
lished; and eA^ery such devise, gift, re-
mainder or trust AAdiich, according to the
laAvs of the land, and such native right,
ought to descend to such Papist, shall,
during the life of such Papist (unless he
forsake his religion), descend to the
nearest relation that is a Protestant,
and his heirs being and continuing
Protestants, as though the said popish
heir and all other popish relations Avere
dead ; Avithout being accountable for the
same: Avhich is nothing less than rob-
bing such popish heir of such his birth-
right ; for no other reason, but his being
and continuing of that religion, Avhich by
the first of Limerick Articles, the Poman
Catholics of this kingdom Avere to enjoy,
as they did in the reign of King Charles
II., and then there Avas no law in force
that deprived any Koman Catholic of this
kingdom of any such their native birthright,
or any other thing Avhich, by the laAvs of
the land then in force, any other felloAV-
subjects Avere intituled unto.

“The 8th clause of this bill is to erect
in this kingdom a laAv of gavel-kind, a laAv
in itself so monstrous and strange, that I
dare say this is the first time it Avas ever
heard of in the Avorld ; a laAv so pernicious
and destructiA’e to the AA'ell-being of fami-
lies and societies, that in an age or two
there Avill hardly be any remembrance of
any of the ancient Koman Catholic fami-
lies knoAvn in the kingdom ; a laAv Avhich,
therefore, I may again venture to say, Avas
never before knoAvn or heard of in the
universe.

“ There is, indeed, in Kent, a custom
called the custom of gaA^el-kind ; but I
iieA’Cr heard of any laAV for it till now ;
and that custom is far different from Avhat
by this bill is intended to be made a laAv ;
for there, and by that custom, the father
or other person, dying possessed of any
estate of his own acquisition, or not en-
tailed (let him be of Avhat persuasion he
Avill), may by Avill bequeath it at pleasure :
or if he dies Avithout Avill, the estate shall i

not be divided, if there be any male heir
to inherit it ; but for AA’aiit of male heir,
then it shall descend in gavel-kind among
the daughters and not otherAvise. But by
this act, for Avant of a Protestant heir,
enrolled as such Avithin three months
after the death of such Papist, to be di-
vided, share and share alike, among all
his sons ; for Avaiit of sons, among his
daughters ; for want of such, among the
collateral kindred of his father ; and for
Avant of such, among those of his mother ;
and this is to take place of any grant,
settlement, &c., other than sale, for valu-
able consideration of money, really, hona
fide, paid. And shall I not call this a
strange laAv? Surely it is a strange laAv,
Avhich, contrary to the laAvs of all nations,
thus confounds all settlements, Iioav ancient
soever, or otherwise Avarrantable by all
the laAvs heretofore in force in this or any
other kingdom.

•• The 9th clause of this act is another
manifest breach of the Articles of Lime-
rick ; for by the 9th of those articles, no
oath is to be administered to, nor imposed
upon such Roman Catholics as should
submit to the Government, but the oath of
allegiance appointed by an act of parlia-
ment made in England in the first year of
the reign of their late majesties King
William and Queen Mary (Avhich is the
same Avith the first of those appointed by
the 10th clause of this act), but by this
clause, none shall liaA^e the benefit of this
act, that shall not conform to the Church
of Ireland, subscribe the declaration, and
take and subscribe the oath of abjuration,
appointed by the 9th clause of tliis act ;
and therefore this act is a manifest breach
of those articles, &c., and a force upon all
the Koman Catholics therein comprised,
either to abjure their religion or part Avith
their birthrights ; Avhich, by those articles,
they Avere, and are as fully and as right-
fully intituled unto as any other subjects
Avdiatever,

“The 10th, nth, 12th, 13th, and 14th,
clauses of this bill (said he) relate to
offices and employments AAdiich the Papists
of Ireland cannot hope for enjoyment of,
otherAvise than by grace and favour extra-
ordinary : and therefore, do not so much
affect them, as the Protestant Dissenters
Avdio (if this bill pass into a hiAv) are
equally Avith the Papists deprived of bear-
ing any office, civil or military, under the
GoA^ermnent, to which, by right of birth
and the laws of the land, they are as in-
disputably intituled, as any other their
Protestant brethren ; and if Avhat the Irish
did in the late disorders of this kingdom
made them rebels (Avhich the presence of
a king they had before been obliged to

38

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

own and swear obedience to gave them a
reasonable colour of concluding it did not),
3’-et surely the Dissenters did not do any
thing to make them so ; or to deserve
worse at the hands of the Government
than any other Protestants, but, on the
contrary, it is more than probable that
if they (I mean the Dissenters) had
not put a stop to the career of the
Irish army at Enniskillen and London-
derry, the settlement of the Govern-
ment, both in England and Scotland,
might not have proved so easy as it
thereby did; for if that army had got
to Scotland (as there was nothing at that
time to have hindered them, but the bra-
very of those people, who were mostly
Dissenters, and chargeable with no other
crime since ; unless their close adhering
to, and early appearing for the then Govern-
ment, and the many faithful services
they did their country, were crimes), I
say (said he) if they had got to Scotland
when they had boats, barks, and all things
else ready for their transportation, and a
great many friends there in arms waiting
only their coming to join them, it is easy
to think what the consequence would have
been to both these kingdoms : and these
Dissenters then were thought fit for com-
mand, both civil and military, and were
no less instrumental in contributing to
reducing the kingdom than any other
Protestants : and to pass a bill now to
de])i'ive them of their birthrights (for
those their good services), would surely
be a most unkind return, and the worst
reward ever granted to a people so de-
serving, Whatever the Papists may be
supposed to have deserved, the Dissenters
certainly stand as clean in the face of the
present Government as any other people
whatsoever : and if this is all the return
they are like to get, it will be but a slender
encouragement, if ever occasion should
require, for others to pursue their example.

‘•By the 15th, 16th, and 17th clauses of
this bill, all Papists, after the 21th of
March, 1703, are prohibited from pur-
chasing any houses or tenements, or com-
ing to dwell in Limerick or Galway, or
the suburbs of either, and even such as
were under the articles, and by virtue
thereof have ever since lived there, from
staying there without giving such security
as neither those articles, nor any law
heretofore in force, do require ; except
seamen, fishermen, and day labourers,
who pay not above forty shillings a year
rent ; and from voting for the election of
members of Parliament, unless they take
the oath of abjuration ; which, to oblige
them to, is contrary to the 9th of Limerick
Articles ; which, as aforesaid, says the

oath of allegiance, and no other, shall be
imposed upon them ; and, unless they abj ure
their religion, takes away their advow-
sons and right of presentation, contrary
to the privilege of right, the laws of na-
tions, and the great charter of Magna
Charta which provides that no man shall
be disseized of his birthright, without
committing some crime against the known
laws of the land in which he is born or in-
habits. And if there was no law in force,
in the reign of King Charles the Second,
against these things (as there certainly
was not), and if the Roman Catholics of
this kingdom have not since forfeited
their right to the laws that then were in
force fas for certain they have not) ; then
with humble submission, all the aforesaid
clauses and matters contained in this bill,
intituled, An Act to prevent the further
growth of Popery, are directly against the
plain words and true intent and meaning
of the said articles, and a violation of the
public faith and the laws made for their
performance ; and what I therefore hope
(said he) this honourable house will con-
sider accordingly.”

It is but just to mention the arguments
by which this earnest reasoning was met
in the Irish House of Commons. It was
objected, then, that the counsel for the
Catholics had not demonstrated how and
when (since the making of the Articles of
Limerick) the Papists of Ireland had ad-
dressed the Queen or Government, when
all other subjects were so doing ; or had
otherwise declared their fidelity and obe-
dience to the queen. Further it was
urged, by way of reply, “ That any right
which the Papists pretended to be taken
from them by the bill was in their own
power to remedy, by conforming, as in pru-
dence they ought to do ; and that they
ought not to blame any but themselves.”
It was still further argued that the pass-
ing of this bill would not be a breach of
the Treaty of Limerick, because the per-
sons therein comprised were only to be put
into the same state they were in the reign
of Charles the Second ; and because in
that reign there was no law in force
which hindered the passing of any other
law thought needful for the future safety
of the Government : lastly, that the House
was of opinion that the passing of this bill
was needful at present for the security of
the kingdom ; and that there Avas not
anything in the Articles of Limerick to
prohibit them from so doing. It is not
needful to comment on the excessAe in-
solence of the subterfuge.

The same counsel were heard before the
Lords : and here it Avas admitted, on the
part of the petitioners, that the legislative

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

30

•power cannot be confined from altering
and making such laws as shall be thought
necessary, for securing the quiet and
-safety of the Government ; that in time
of Avar or danger, or when there siiall be
just reason to suspect any ill designs to
disturb the public peace, no articles or
j)revious obligations shall tie up the hands
of the legislators from providing for its
safety, or bind the Government from dis-
arming and securing any Avho may be
reasonably suspected of favouring or cor-
responding with its enemies, or to be
otherwise guilty of ill practices : “ Or
indeed to enact any other laA\%” said Sir
Stephen Kice, “that may be absolutely
needful for the safety and advantage of
the public ; such a law cannot be a breach
■either of these, or any other like articles.
But then such laws ought to be in general,
and should not single out, or affect any
one particular part or party of the people,
Avho gave no provocation to any such law,
and AAdiose conduct stood hitherto unim-
peached, ever since the ratification of the
aforesaid Articles of Limerick. To make
ail}" law that shall single any i)articular
part of the people out from the rest, and
take from them what by right of birtli,
and all the preceding laws of the land,
liad been confirmed to and entailed upon
them, Avill be an apparent Anolation of the
original institution of all riglit, and an ill
precedent to any that hereafter might dis-
like either the present or any other settle-
ment, which should be in their power to
alter ; the consequence of which is hard
to imagine.”

The Lord Chancellor having then
summed up all that Avas offered at the
bar, the House of Lords proceeded to pass
the bill Avithout delay. And it is really
remarkable that in neither House did one
single peer or commoner offer a Avord of
remonstrance against its passage. A fcAv
days after, on the dth of March, it re-
ceived the royal assent.

The penal code might noAv be
considered tolerably complete; and the
nine-tenths of the population of Ireland
was thus effectually brought doAvn under
the feet of the other one-tenth ; so
absolutely subjugated, indeed, that they
could not possibly be depressed lower,
unless they had been actually bought
and sold as slaves. Forbidden to teach or
to be taught, Avhether at home or abroad,
depriA'ed of necessary arms for self-de-
fence. or CA-en for the chase; disabled
from being so much as game-keepers, lest
any of them should learn the use of
firearms ; and provision being made for
gradually impoA^erishing the Catholic
families Avho still OAvned anything, and

preventing the industrious from making
themselves independent by their labour —
it would be hard to point out any people
of ancient or modern times Avho groaned
under a more ingenious, torturing and
humiliating oppression. Yet one pecu-
liarity is to be remarked in the adminis-
tration of these laAvs : — they Avere so
applied, for generations, as to alloAv a bare
toleration to Catholic Avorship, provided
that worship Avere practised in mean and
obscui'e places, provided there Avere no
clergy in the kingdom but simple secular
priests ; Avho Avere also compelled to
register their names and parishes “of
Avdiich they pretended to be popish priests”
— the j)enalty for saying mass out of those
registered parishes being transportation,
and in case of return, death. On these
terms, then, it Avas practically permitted
to Catholics to attend at the service of
their religion, althougli this Avas contrary
to an express laA\g namely, to the “ Act of
Uniformity,” Avhich required all persons
not having laAvTul excuse to attend on the
seiwices of the Established Church. But
throughout all this reign of Anne, and
the tAA'o succeeding reigns, there Awas no
such relaxation as this alloAved in any
matter relating to property, priAnlege, or
trade : in all these matters the code AV'as
executed Avith the most rigorous severity.
So that it is plain the object of the
Ascendency Avas not so much to coiiA'-ert
Catholics to Protestantism, as to coiiA^ert
the goods of Catholics to Protestant use.
This is the main difference betAveen the
Catholic persecutions on the continent at
that period and tlie Protestant persecu-
tions in Ireland : and it fully justifies the
reflection of a late Avriter — “ It may be a
circumstance in favour of tlie Protestant
code (or it may not), that Avhereas
Catholics ha\'e really persecuted for
religion, ‘ enlightened’ Protestants only
made a pretext of religion ; taking
no thought Avhat became of Catholic
souls, if only they could get possession
of Catholic lands and goods. Also
Ave may remark, that Catholic govern-
ments in their persecutions ahvays really
desired the conversion of misbelievers (al-
])eit their methods Avere rough) ; but in
Ireland, if the people had universally
turned Catholic, it Avould have defeated
the Avhole scheme.”

The recall of the Edict of Xantes, AA'hich
edict had secured toleration for Protestant-
ism in France, is bitterly dAvelt upon by
English Avriters as the heaviest reproach
which Aveighs on the memory of King
Louis the Fourteenth. The recall of the
edict had taken i)lace in 1GS5, only a feAv
1 years before the passage of this Irish “ Act

40

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

to prevent the further growth of Popery.”
The differences between the two transac-
tions are mainly these two : first, that the
Prench Protestants had not been guaran-
teed their civil and religious rights by any
treaty, as the Irish Catholics, though they
held theirs by the Treaty of Limerick ;
second, that the penalties denounced
against French Protestants by the recaUimi
edict bore entirely upon their religious
service itself, and were truly intended to
induce and force the Huguenots to become
Catholics ; there being no confiscations
except in cases of relapse, and in cases of
quitting the kingdom ; but there was
nothing of all the complicated machinery
above described, for beggaring one portion
of the population, and giving its spoils to
the other part. We may add, that tlie
penalties and disabilities in France lasted
a much shorter time than in Ireland ; and
that French Protestants Avere restored to
perfect civil and religious equality with
tlieir countrymen in every respect forty
years before the “ Catliolic Kelief Act”
l)urported to emancipate the Irisli Ca-
tholics, Avho are not, indeed, emancipated
yet. Mr. Burke, in his excellent tract on
the penal laws, comparing the recall of the
Nantes Edict Avith our Irish system, says
Avith great force —

“ This act of injustice, Avhich let loose
on that monarch such a torrent of inA'cetive
and reproach, and Avhich threw so dark a
cloud OA-er all the splendour of a most il-
lustrious reign, falls far short of the case
in Ireland. The privileges Avhich the
Protestants of that kingdom enjoyed ante-
cedent to this revocation, Avere far gi’eater
than the Roman Catholic's of Ireland ever
aspired to under a contrary establishment.
The number of their sufferers, if con-
sidered absolutely, is not the half of ours ;
if considered relatively to the body of each
community, it is not perhaps a tAventieth
part ; and then the penalties and incapaci-
ties which grew from that revocation are
not so grievous in their nature, nor so cer-
tain in their execution, nor so ruinous l)y
a great deal to the civil prosperity of the
state, as those Avhich Avere established
for a perpetual laAv in our unhappy
country.”

Readers will turn A\dth pleasure from the
gloomy and painful scene presented by
Ireland in that dismal time, to the other
half of Ireland, the choicest of the Avhole
nation ; Avhich Avas to be found in all the
camps and fields of Europe, Avherever gal-
lant feats of arms Avere to be done. The
gallant Justin MacCarthy, Lord Mount-
cashel, had long been dead, having fallen
on the field of Staffardo, under Marshal
Catinat, in 17U0 ; Avhere a brigade of Irish

troops had been serAung in the French
army before the surrender of Limerick.
The arrival of Sarsfield, Avith so many dis-
tinguished officers and veteran troops,
gave occasion to the formation of the
“JNcw Irish Brigade;” and Ave have seen
Avith noAV much distinction that corps had
fought against England on so many fields
of the Netherlands. In the neAv AA'ar A\dnch
folloAved the accession of Queen Anne,
bodies of the Irish forces served in each of
the great French armies. There Avere four
regiments of cavalry, Galway's, Kilmal-
lock’s, Sheldon’s, and Clare’s— the last
commanded by O’Brien, Lord Clare,
constantly employed in these Avars —
and at least sev'en regiments of infantry.
All these corps were kept more than
full by neAv arrivals of exiles and
emigrants.

It Avill afford a relief from the irksome
tale of oppression at home, to tell hoAv
some of these exiles acquitted themselves
Avhen they had the gootl luck to meet on
some foreign field either Englishmen or
the allies of England. About the time
Avhen the hiAvyers of the “Ascendency”
AA'cre elaborating in Dublin their bill for
the plunder of Catholic AvidoAvs and
orphans, it happened that there Avere tAvo
regiments, Dillon’s (one of Mountcashel’s
old brigade), and Burke’s, called the Ath-
lone regiment, Avhich formed part of the
garrison of Cremona on the bank of the
Bo. The French commander Avas the Duke
de Villeroy, Avho had just brought his
Avhole army into Cremona, after an un-
successful affair Avith Brince Eugene at
Chiari. Cremona Avas then, as it is noAv.
a A^cry strong fortified town ; and the
duke intended to rest his forces there for
a time, as it Avas the depth of Avinter.
The enterprising Brince Eugene jdanned
a surprise : he had procured for himself
some traitorous intelligence in the toAvn.
and some of his grenadiers had already
been introduced by a clever stratagem.
Large bodies of troops had approached
close to the town by v'arious routes ; and
all Avas ready for the grand operation on
the night of the 2nd of February, 1702.
Villeroy and his subordinates Avere of
course much to l)lame for having suffered
all the preparations for so grand a mili-
tary operation to be brought to perfection
up to the A'ery moment of execution.
The marshall Avas peacefully sleeping : he
Avas aAvaked by A'olleys of musketry. He
dressed and mounted in great haste ; and
the first thing he met in the streets Avas a
squadron of Imperial cavalry, Avho made
him prisoner, his captor being an xVustrian
officer named MacDonnell. Brince Eu-
gene, with Count Stahremberg, Commerci,

IIISTOUY OF llO:i.AN'I>.

41

iiiul seven tliousaml men, were already in
theiieartof tlie town, and oeeupyinix the
preat square. It was tour o’clock on a
February morninp, when all this had lu'en
accomplished; ami Prince Kupene thonpht
the place already won, when the French
troops t)idy hepan to turn out of their
beils, and ilress. Alarm was soon piven.
The repiment des Vaisseanx and the two
Irish repiments are the only corps men-
tioneil i)y M. de Voltaire as havinp dis-
tinpnished themselves in tnrninp the
fortune of that terrible morninp ; and as
Voltaire is not usually favourable, nor
even just to the Irish, it is well to trans-
cribe tirst his narrative of theaffair, ‘“The
Chevalier d’Entrapues was to hold a
review that day in the town of the repi-
inent des Vaisseanx, of which he was
colonel ; and already the soldiers were
assemhlinp at four o’clock at one
extremity of the town just as Prince
Enpene was enterinp by the other.
D’Entrapucs bepins to run throuph the
streets with the soldiers ; resists such
Germans as he encounters, and pives
time to the rest of the parrison to hurry
up. vjfficers and soldiers, pell-mell, some
half-armed, others almost naked, with-
out direction, without order, fill the streets
and public places. They fight in confusion,
intrench themselves from street to street,
from place to place. Two Irish repiments,
who made part of the parrison, arrest
the advance of the Imperialists. Never
town was surprised with more skill, nor
defended with so much valour. The parrison
consisted of about five thousand men :
Prince Enpene had not yet hroupht in
more than four thousand. A large de-
tachment of his army was to arrive by
the Po Bridge ; the measures were well
taken; but another chance deranged all.
Tins bridge over the Po, insufTiciently
guarded by about a hundred French sol-
diers, was to have been seized by a body
of German cuirassiers, who, at the mo-
ment Prince Eugene was enterinp the
town, were commanded to go and take
possession of it. For this purpose it was
necessary that having first entered by the
southern gate, they should instantly go
outside of the city in a northern direction
by the Po gate, and then hasten to the
bridge. But in going thither the guide
who led them was killed by a musket-
hall fired from a window. The cuirassiers
take one street for another. In this short
interval, the Irish spring forward to the
gate of the Po: they fight and repulse
the cuirassiers. The Marquis de Praslin
jirofits by the moment to cut down the
bridge. The succour which the enemy
counted on did not arrive, and the town

was saved.”* But the lighting was by no
means ovi*r with tlu* ri*pidse of Gomrt
.Merei’s ri'inforeements : a furious combat
raged all the morninp in the streets; and
Mahony ;md linrke laid still much to do.
At last the whole ImiiiTialist forci! was
linally rejinlsed ; and the soldiers then got
time tojinton their Jackets, (.’olonel Bnrko
lost of his regiment seven ollii’ers and
lorty-two soldiiM’s killed, and nine ollicers
and fifty soldiers wounded. Dillon’s regi-
ment, commanded that day by Major
Mahony, lost one ollicer and forty-nine
soldiers killed, and twelve oflicers and
seventj'-nine soldiers wounded.

King Louis sent formal thanks to the
two Irish regiments, and raised their pay
from that day.

In the campaigns of ITOd the Iri.sh had
at least their full share of cmjiloyment
and of honour. U nder Vendbme, they made
their mark in Italjp on the fields of Vit-
toria, Luzzara, Cassano, and Calcinato.
On the Khine they were still more dis-
tinguished ; especially at Freidlingen and
Spires, in which latter battle a splendid
charge of Nugent’s horse saved the for-
tune of the day. After this year the
militaiy fortune of France declined ; but,
whether in victory or defeat, the Brigade
was still fighting liy their side ; nor is
there any record of an Irish regiment
having behaved badly on any field.

At the battle of Ilochstet or Blenheim,
in 1704, IMarshall Tallard was defeated
and taken ])risoner by Marlborough and
Eugene. The French and Bavarians lost
10,000 killed, 13,000 prisoners, and 1)0
pieces of cannon. Yet amid this mon-
strous disaster, Clare’s dragoons were vic-
torious over a portion of Eugene’s famous
cavalry, and took two standards. And in
the battle of Bamillies, in 170G, where
Villeroy was utterly routed, Clare’s dra-
goons attempted to cover the wreck of the
retreating French, broke through an Eng
lish regiment, and followed them into the
thronging van of the Allies. JMr. Forman
states that they w^ere generously assisted
out of this predicament by an Italian
regiment, and succeeded in carrying off
the English colours they liad taken.

At the sad days of Oudenarde and Mal-
plaquet, some of them were also jiresent ;
but to the victories which brightenetl this
time, so dark to France, the ilrigade con-
tributed materially. At the battle of Al-
manza (13th March, 1707,) several Irish

* Some of the Irish accounts of this achievement
are too glowiii" perliaps, as is natural Even ac-
cording to Voltaire’s narration, Hie Irisli soldiers
really did everything which he .says was done at
all ; beat Prince Eugene’s troops in the city itself,
and saved the Po gate from the other detachment
under the Count Merci.

42

HISTORY OR IRELAND.

regiments served under Berwick. In the
early part of the day the Portuguese
and Spanish auxiliaries of England were
broken, but the English and Dutch fought
successfully for a long time ; nor was it till
repeatedly charged by the elite of Ber-
wick’s army, including the Irish, that they
were forced to retreat. 3000 killed, 10,000
prisoners, and 120 standards, attested
the magnitude of the victory. It j)ut
King Philip on the throne of Spain. In
the siege of Barcelona, Dillon’s regiment
fought with great effect.

In their ranks was a boy of twelve
years old ; he was the son of a Galway
gentleman, Mr. Daily or O’Lally, of Tul-
loch na Daly, and his uncle had sat in
James’s Parliament of 1G89. This boy, so
early trained, was afterwards the famous
Count Dally de Tollendal, whose services
in every part of the globe make his exe-
cution a stain upon the honour as well as
upon the justice of Douis XVI. 'When
Villars swept off the whole of Albemarle’s
battalions at Denain, in 1712, the Irish
were in his van.

The Treaty of Utrecht and the dismissal
of Marlborough, x>ut an end to the war in
Elanders, but still many of the Irish con-
tinued to serve in Italy and Germany,
and thus fought at Parma, Guastalla, and
Philipsburg.

It was not alone in the French service
that our military exiles won renown.
The O’Donnells, O’Xeils. and O’Keillys,
with the relics of the Ulster clans, pre-
ferred to tight under the Spanish flag:
and in the war of the “ Spanish Suc-
cession,” Spain had five Irish regiments
in her army ; whose commanders were
O’Keillys, O’Garas, Dacys, Wogans, and
Dawlesses. For several generations a
succession of Irish soldiers of rank and
distinction were always to be found under
the Spanish standard ; and in that king-
dom those who had been chiefs in their
own land were always recognized as
“grandees,” the equals of the proudest
nobles of Castile. Hence the many noble
families of Irish race and name still to be
found in Spain at this day. The Penin-
sular War, in the beginning of the present
century, found a Blake generalissimo of
the Spanish armies ; while an O’Neill
commanded the troops of Arragon ; and
O’Donnells and O’Keillys held high grades
as general officers. All these true Irish-
men were lost to their own country, and
were forced to shed their blood for the
stranger, A\’hile their kindred at home so
much needed their counsels and their
swords : but it was the settled policy of
England, and the English colony, now
and for long after, to make it impossible

for men of spirit and ambition to live in
Ireland, so that the remaining masses of
abject people might be the more helpless
in the hands of their enemies.

But it is time to turn away from those
stirring scenes of glory on the continent,
at least for the present, and look back up-
on the sombre picture presented by one
unvarying record of misery and oppres-
sion at home.

CHAPTER VI.

1701—1714.

Enforcement of the Penal Laws. — Making informers
honourable. “Pembroke lord-lieutenant.— Union of
England and Scotland. — Means by which it was
carried. — Irish House of Lords in favour of an
Union. — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells. —
Catholics excluded from Juries. — Wharton lord-
lieutenant. — Second Act to prevent growth of
Popery. — Kewai'ds for “ discoveries.” — Jonathan
Swift. — Nature of his Irish Patriotism. — Papists
the “common enemy.” — The Dissenters. — Colony
of the Palatines. — Disasters of the French, and
Peace of Utrecht. — The “Pretender.”

During all the rest of the reign of Anne,
the law fo'r preventing the growth of
Popery Avas as rigorously executed all
over tile island, as it was iiossible for such
laws to be ; and there ivas the keen per-
sonal interest of the Protestant inhabi-
tants of ev'ery town and district, always
excited and kept on the stretch to dis-
cover and inform upon such unfortunate
Catholics as had contrived to remain in
possession of some of those estates, lease-
holds, or other interests ivliich were now
by law capable of being held by Protest-
ants alone. Every Catholic suspected his
Protestant neighbour of prying into his
affairs and dealings for the purpose of
plundering him. Every Protestant sus-
pected his Catholic neighbour of conceal-
ing some property, or privately receiving
the revenue of some trust, and thus keep-
ing him, the Protestant, out of his oivn.
Mutual hatred and distrust kept the tivo
races apart ; and there ivas no social in-
tercourse or good neighbourhood between
them. Informers of course were busy, and
well rewarded ; yet there ivere many of
the Catlu'lic families who cheated their
enemies out of their prey, by real or pre-
tended conversions to the Established
Church, or else by secret trusts vested
legally in some friendly Protestant ; Avho
ran, hoAvever, very heavy risks by this
kind proceeding.

For on the 17th of March, a fcAv days
after the passage of the Act of 1704, the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

43

Commons passed unanimously a resolu-
tion, “ that all magistrates and other per-
sons whatsoever, avIio neglected or omitted
to put it in due execution, were betrayers
■of the liberties of the kingdom.” Again,
in June, 1705, they “resolved, that the
saying or hearing of Mass, by per'ons
who had not taken the oath of abjurai ;on,
tended to advance the interests of the
Pretender” although it was then very well
known that the Irish Catholics were not
thinking in the least of the Pretender, or
of placing their hopes in a counter-revo-
lution to bring in the Stuarts. This
resolution, therefore, was simply intended
to make Papists odious, and to stimulate
the zeal of informers against those who
said or heard Mass in any other manner,
or under any other condition than those
prescribed for registering “the pretended
Popish priests.” But as it was still diffi-
cult to induce men to discover and inform
upon unoffending neighbours, and as in
fact the trade of informer was held in-
famous by all fair-minded men, the
Commons took care also to resolve
unanimously, “ that the prosecuting and
informing against Papists was an honour-
able service to the Government.” The
informers being now, therefore, honour-
able by law, and taken under the special
favour of the Government, gave such new
and extensive development to their pecu-
liar industry as made it for long after the
most profitable branch of business in this
impoverished country, and afforded some
compensation for the ruin of the Avoollen
manufacture and other honest trades.

The Earl of Pembroke, lord-lieutenant
in the year 1706, made a speech to the
Parliament, in Avhich he endeavoured to
soothe the feelings of the Dissenters dis-
abled by the Sacramental Test, and to
combine all Protestants in a cordial union
against the hated Papists. He recom-
mended them to provide for the security
of the realm against their foreign and
domestic enemies — by which latter phrase
he meant Catholics — and added “ that lie
was commanded by her majesty to inform
them, that her majesty, considering the
number of Papists in Ireland, would be
glad of an expedient for the strengthen-
ing the interest of her Protestant sub-
jects in that kingdom.” Fear of the
“ common enemy ” — the established par-
liamentary term to describe Catholics,
was often urged as an inducement to
mitigate the disabilities of Dissenters ;
and this controversy continued many
years. The Established Church party
Avas resolved not to relax any part of their
code of exclusion ; and had perfect con-
fidence that the Dissenters, though pressed

themselves by one portion of the penal
code, AA’ould never, under any prov/.ation.
make common cause Avith CathoLcs. And
this confidence Avas Avell-foimded. The
Dissenters preferred to endure exclusion
by the Test, rather than Aveaken in any
Avay the great Protestant interest ; and the
few representatives Avhom the Ulster
Presbyterians had in the Commons never,
in a single instance, gave a voice against
any neAv rigour or penalty imposed upon
the “ common enemy;”

It AA\as in the year 1707 that the Eng-
lish Government at length accomplished
its long desired project of an Union
betAveen England and Scotland. There
was much indignant resistance against
the measure by patriotic Scotsmen ; and
it needed much intrigue and no little
bribery, judiciously distributed (as in Ire-
land ninety-three years later), to overcome
the opposition. An English historian *
gives this simple account of the matter :
“ Exclusive of the methods used to allay
the popular resentment and the sacrifices
made to national prejudice, other means
Avere adopted to facilitate the final passing
of the Act of Union. By the report of
the Commissioners of Public Accounts,
deliv'ered in some years after this time, it
appears tliat the sum of tAventy thousand
pounds, and upwards, Avas remitted at the
present juncture to Scotland, Avhich Avas
distributed so judiciously that the rage of
opposition suddenly subsided ; and the
treaty, as originally framed, received
Avithout any material alteration, the
solemn sanction of the Scottish Parlia-
ment— the general question being carried
by a majority of 110 votes.” In vain the
patriots fought against the influence of
the Court. In vain did Fletcher of
Saltoun earnestly declare in his place in
Parliament, “ that the country Avas he-
trayed by the Commissioners.” In vain
did Lord Belhaven, in a speech yet famous
in Scotland, pathetically describe Cale-
donia as sitting in the midst of the Senate,
looking indignantly around and covering
herself Avith her royal robe, attending the
fatal bloAV, breathing out Avith passionate
emotion Et tu quoque, mi Jili ! The measure
Avas carried, and Scotland became a pro-
Aunce. IIoAV similar all this to the scenes
enacted in our oavu country, almost a
century later ! But for the name of Lord
Somers, the great engineer of the Scottish
Union, aa"c must substitute Castlereagh,
make the bribery larger, and the intrigues
darker.

It is AV’erth noting that the Irish House
of Lords, Avhen the Union Avith Scotland

* Belsham. History of Great Britain from the
Revolution. Book V.

44

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

■was in agitation four years before, in
1703, addressed the queen in favour of a
similar measure for Ireland. They now,
in 1707, did so again, beseeching her
majesty to extend the benefits of her royal
protection equally over all her kingdoms.
The House of Commons did not favour
this proceeding ; nor was it at that time
regarded with complacency in England.
Nothing further, therefore, was done upon
the suggestion made by their lordships,
who had i)robably got scent of bribery
going on in Scotland, and naturally be-
thought them that they had a country to
sell as well as other people. They Avere
disappointed for that time ; but many of
their great grandsons in 1800 derived
benefit by the delay in concluding that
transaction, and received a price for their
services, twenty times more princely than
what could have been commanded in the
time of Lord Somers.

The agitation in Scotland arising from
the Act of Union, although entirely con-
fined to the Presbyterian people of that
kingdom, furnished a new excuse for out-
rage upon Irish Catholics. There Avas in
truth a plot, extending through the
south-Avest of Scotland, for raising an
army, inviting the “Pretender” (Anne’s
brother), and so getting rid of the
Union by establishing again the dynasty
of their ancient kings. On the first dis-
coAxry of this project in 1708, forty- one
Catholic gentlemen Avere at once arrested
and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, Avithout
any charge against them Avhatsoever, but,
as it appeared, only to provoke and
humble them. It is indeed Avonderful to
read of the ingenious malignity Avith I
Avhich occasions Avere sought out to tor-
ment harmless country people by inter-
dicting their innocent recreations and
simple obscure devotions. In the County
Meath, as in many other places in Ire-
land, is a holy Avell, named the “ Well of
St. John.” Prom time immemorial, mul-
titudes of infirm people, men, Avminen,
and children, had frequented this Avell,
to peform penances and to pray for relief
from their maladies. Those invalids Avdio
had been relieved of their infirmities at
these holy Avells, either by faith or by the
use of cold Avater, frequently resorted, in
the summer-time, to the same spot, Avith
their friends and relations ; so that there
was sometimes a considerable concourse
of people on the annual festival of the
patron saint to AA’horn the Avells Avere
dedicated. Such had been the origin of
“ Patron ” in Ireland. On these occasions
the young and the old met together. A
little fair Avas sometimes held, of toys or
other articles of small value, and the day

was passed by some in religious exercises,
by others in harmless society and amuse-
ment. But amusement, or recreation,
protection of saints, or benefit of prayers,
Avas not presumed to exist for Catholics
and these innocent meetings Avere natur-
ally assumed to have some connection
Avith “ bringing in the Pretender,” and
overthroAving the glorious Constitution in
Chnrch and State. They Avere, therefore,
strictly forbidden by a statute of this
reign,* Avhich imposed a fine of ten shil-
lings (and in default of payment, whip-
pin(j) upon every person “ Avho shall attend
or be present at any pilgrimage, or meet-
ing held at any holy Avell, or impnted holy
Avell.” The same act inflicts a fine of £20
(and imprisonment until payment) upon
every person avIio shall build a booth, or
sell ale, victuals, or other commodities at
such pilgrimages or meetings. It further
“requires all magistrates to demolish all
crosses, pictures, and inscriptions that ar&
anyAAdiere publicly set up, and are the oc-
casions of Popish sujDerstitions” — that is,
objects of reverence and respect to the Ca-
tholics. Thus, in Ireland, Avere made
penal and suppressed those patron fairs,
Avliich indeed have been the origin of the
most ancient and celebrated fairs of
Europe, as those of Lyons, Frankfort,
Leipzig, and many others.

One other enactment of 1708 Avill shoAv
Avhat kind of chance Catholics had in
courts of justice ; and Avill bring us doAvn
to the period of the second Act “ to prevent
the further groAvth of Popery.” This laAv
enacted, “ That from the first of Michael-
mas Term, 1708, no Papist shall serve, or
be returned to seiwe, on any grand-jury in
the Queen’s Bench, or before Justices of
Assize, oyer and terminer, or gaol-deliA^ery
or Quarter Sessions, unless it appear to
the court that a sutficient number of Pro-
testants cannot then be had for the serAuce :
and in all trials of issues [that is, by petty
juries] on any presentment, indictment, or
information, or action on any statute, for
any offence committed by Papists, in
breach of such laAvs, the plaintiff or prose-
cutor may challenge any Papist returned
as juror, and assign as a cause that he is a
Papist, ichich chaUenge shall he allowed.^^
The sj)irit of this enactment, and the
practice it introduced, have continued till
the present moment; and at this A’^ery time, ^
on trials for political offences. Catholics
Avho have been summoned are usually
challenged and set aside.

In May, 1709, Thomas Earl of Wharton
being then lord-lientenant, Avith Addison,
of the Spectatoi', as secretary, there Avas
introduced into the House of Commons a
* 2nd Anne, c. 6.

HISTORY OF IRI:LAND.

45

“ Bill to explain and amend an Act in-
tituled an Act to prevent the further
growth of Popery.” It Avas introduced hy
Mr. Sergeant Caulfield : was duly trans-
mitted to England hy Wharton, Avas ap-
proved at once, and on its return Avas
passed, of course. Its intention Avas chiefly
to close up any loophole of escape from
the penalties of former statutes, and guard
every possible access by Avhich “Papists”
might still attain to independence or a
quiet life. Some, for example, had
secretly purchased annuities — by this
statute, therefore, a Papist is declared in-
capable of holding or enjoying an annuity
for life. It had been found, also, that
paternal authority or filial affection had
prevented from its full operation that
former act of 1701 A\diich authorized
a child, on conforming, to reduce his
father to a tenant for life. Further en-
couragement to children seemed desirable :
therefore by this new laAV, upon the con-
version of the child of any Catholic, the
chancellor was to compel the father to
discover upon oath the full value of his
estate, real and personal ; and thereupon
make an order for the independent sup-
port of such conforming child, and for
securing to him, after his father’s death,
such share of the property as to the court
should seem fit; also to secure jointures
to popish Avives Avho should desert their
husbands’ faith. Thus distrust and dis-
cord and heartburning in every family
Avere Avell provided for. One clause of
the Act prohibits a Papist from teaching,
as tutor or usher, even as assistant to a
Protestant schoolmaster ; and another
offers a salary of £30 to suchpoinsh priests
as sliould conform. But one thing Avas still
wanting : it Avas knoAvn that, notwithstand-
ing the previous banishment of Catholic
ar Jibishops, bishops, &c., there Avere still
men in the kingdom exercising those func-
tions, coming from France and from Spain,
and braving the terrible penalties of trans-
portation and death, in order to keep up the
indispensable connection of the Catholic,
flock with the Head of the Church. It
Avas knoAvn that this was indeed an abso-
lute necessity, at Avhatsoeverrisk ; and that
to pretend a toleration of Catholic Avor-
ship while the hierarchy was banished,
was as reasonable as to talk of tolerating
Presbyterianism Avithout Presbyterians, or
courts Avithout judges, or laAvs or juries.
Therefore, this Act for ‘ ‘ explaining and
amending,” assigned stated rewards to
informers for the discovery of an arch-
bishop, bishop, vicar -general, or other
person exercising ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion. For such a prize the informer was
to have £50 ; for discovering any monk

or friar, or any secular clergyman not
duly registered, £20: for discovering a
popish schoolteacher or tutor, £10. Any
tAvo justices are also empoAvered to sum-
mon before them any Papist over eighteen
years, and examine him upon oath as to
the time and place he last heard Mass, and
the names of the parties present, as Avell
as concerning the residence of any Papist
priest or schoolmaster ; and in case of the
witness refusing to testify there Avas a
penalty of £20, or tAvelve months’ im-
prisonment. The informers Avere expected,
after this, to be more diligent and devotecl
than ever ; and a proclamation of the
same year ordering ail registered priests
to take the abjuration oath before the
25th of March, 1710, under the penalty of
pi'cemunire, gave additional stimulus and
opportunity to the discoA^erers. The trade
of “ priest-hunting ” noAv became a dis-
tinct branch of the profession ; and many
a venerable clergyman Avas dogged by
these bloodhounds, through various dis-
guises, and waylaid by night on his way
to baptize or confirm or visit the dying.
The captured clergy Avere sometimes
brought in by batches of four and five ;
and the laAvs Avere rigorously put in force :
if it was a first offence they Avere trans-
ported ; but if any bishoj) Avho hail ouce
been transported Avas caught in Ireland
again, he was hanged. Such is the main
substance of the act for “ explaining and
amending,” generally called the Second
Act “ to prevent the further groAvth of
Popery.” Lord Wharton, by commission,
gave it the royal assent ; and for the zeal
he had shoAvn in recommending and
hastening the Act, the House of Com-
mons voted his lordship an address,
“gratefully acknoAvledging her majesty’s
most particular care of them in appoint-
ing his excellency their chief governor,
and earnestly Avishing his long continu-
ance in the government,” &c. His ex-
cellency desired the speaker to inform
them “that he Avas extremely Avell pleased
and satisfied.” Than this Lord Wharton
no more profligate politician, no more de-
testable man, had ever been sent over to
rule in Ireland. It is true that the well-
knoAvn character given of him by Dean
Swift must be taken Avith some alloAvance ;
because Wharton Avas a Whig, had been a
Dissenter, and was still favourable to re-
laxation of the code against Dissenters.
These circumstances Avere quite enough
to rouse all the furious ire of the Dean of
St. Patrick’s, and draAv from him a tor-
rent of his foulest abuse. Besides, if the
dean Avas enraged agaist Lord Wharton,
it certainly was not for his tyranny to the
Catholics, but rather for his partiality to

4G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the Dissenters : Avhereby, indeed, as we
shall see, Wharton soon got into great
disfavour with that very Parliament
which had lately praised him so highly.

Jonathan Swift had already lived many
years in Ireland, first as vicar of Kilroot
near Carrickfergus, and afterwards (in
1099) as Hector of Agher and Rector of
Laracor and Rathbeggan, in the diocese of
Meath. He did not become Dean of St.
Patrick’s till 1713 ; nor much concern him-
self with Irish politics till several years
later: but he was a country clergy-
man in Ireland during all the period of
the enactment of the whole penal code,
both in William’s reign and in Anne’s ; he
was himself Avitness to the ferocious exe-
cution of those laws, and the bitter suffer-
ing and humiliation of the Catholic people
under them ; yet neither then, nor at any
later time, not CA'en Avhen in the full tide
of his fame and popularity as a patriot,”
did he ever breathe one syllable of re-
monstrance, or of censure against those
laAvs. SAvift is called an Irish patriot, and
he Avas so, if zealous Aundication of the
claim of the English colony to rule the
nation, and to he the nation, together AA'ith
utter and acrimonious disdain of the great
mass of the people and total indifference
to their grievous Avrongs, can constitute a
patriot. But in truth the history of this
extraordinary genius is a signal illustra-
tion of the position already stated — that
in Ireland Avere tAvo nations, and that to
be a x)atriot for the one Avas to be a mortal
enemy to the other. The period of Dean
Swift’s leadership in Irish (Colonial)
politics had not yet arrived ; and all his
Avritings upon Irish affairs are dated after
his ajApointment to the deanery : but it
may be stated once for all, that this “ Irish
patriot” never once, in his Amluminous
Avorks and correspondence, called himself
an Irishman, but ahvays an Englishman ;
that he sought preferment only in Eng-
laml, Avhere he Avished to liA-e Avith the
“ Avits” at Button’s coffee-house ; that Avhen
named to the Dublin deanery he quitted
London Avith a heaA^y heart, to come over
to his ‘‘exile in Ireland,” OA'er Avhich he
mourned in his letters as pathetically as
Ovid exiled to Tomi ; that he never, in all
the numerous publications he issued on
Irish affairs, gave one Avord or liint betray-
ing the least consciousness or suspicion of
any injustice being done to tlie Catholics :
and lastly, that far from feeling any com-
munity of race or of interest A\-itli the Irish,
Ave find him thus expressing himself in
a letter to his friend Mr. Pope, in 1737 :
“ Some of those Avho highly esteem
3'ou are grieved to find you make no dis-
tinction betAveen the English gentry of

this kingdom and the savage old Irish
(avIio are only the vulgar, and some
gentlemen Avho live in the Irish parts of
the kingdom), but the English colonies,
Avho are three parts in four, are much
more civilized than many counties in
England,” &c. Much Avill haA^e to be
said concerning SAvift and his labours, a
feAv years later in the narrative. Eor the
present it is enough to point out that his
furious denunciation of Lord Wharton
and his administration in Ireland Avas by
no means on account of that nobleman’s
urging on the bill for crushing Papists.

Lord Wharton had been brought up a
Dissenter ; though he had long ceased to
regard a)iy form of religion, or any tie of
morality. He Avas, hoAvever, a Whig, and
by party connections in England, A\‘as
faA'ourable to some relaxation of penal
laAvs against the Irish Presbyterians. In.
his speech proroguing this Parliament of
1709, he said to the Houses that “he
made no question but they understood too
Avell the true interest of the Protestant
religion in that kingdom not to endeavour
to make all Protestants as easy as they
could, Avho Avere Avilling to contribute
AAdiat they could to defend the Avhole
against the common enemij.” But the
majority of the Irish Commons belonged
to the Tory party ; and A^ery soon dis-
sensions and jealousies arose betAveen
them and the lord-lieutenant, on account
of his obvious bias in favour of the Dis-
senters. The government of England
also soon came into the hands of the
Tory party through a series of intrigues
regarding foreign politics, Avhich are not
necessary to be here detailed : and on the
7th Noa'., 1711, the English Lords and
Commons made a long address to the
queen, complaining of MTiarton for “hav-
ing abused her majesty’s name, in order-
ing nolle ])7-osequi to stop proceedings
againts one Fleming and others for dis-
turbing the peace of the tOAAui of
Drogheda by setting up a meeting-house”
— a thing not seen in Drogheda, they say,
for many years. They further com-
plained, in this Address, of Presbyterians,
“for tyranny in threatening and ruining
members Avho left them ; in denying the
common offices of Christianity ; in print-
ing and publishing that the ‘ Sacramental
Test is only an engine to advance a
State faction, and to debase religion to
serve mean and unAvorthy purposes.’ ”
They therefore recommended that her
majesty should AvithdraAV the yearly boun-
ty of £1200, then alloAved to Dissenting
Ministers — the small beginning of that
reyium do7iwn, or royal bounty, AA’hich has
been gradually much increased, to recou-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

47

cile the Presbyterians somewhat to tiieir
disabilities under the Test law. During
all the rest of this reign, and the three
following, no representations on the part
of the Dissenters of the injustice of this
law, and no protestations of their loyalty
to the English crown and House of Han-
over, availed in the least to procure a re-
laxation of the odious Test. Their efforts
in this direction only drew upon them, a
few years later, the savage raillery of
Swift, who maintained that the very Pa-
pists were quite as well entitled to relief
as they.

It was in this year, 1709, that the scheme
originated, of inducing Protestant foreign-
ers to come to Ireland, and of offering
them naturalisation. Accordingly, on the
request of certain lords, and others of the
council, eight hundred and seventy-one
Protestant Palatine families from Ger-
many were brought over, and the sum of
£21,850, os. 6d. appointed for their main-
tenance out of the revenue, on a resolu-
tion of the Commons “that it would
much contribute to the security of the
kingdom if the said Palatines Avere en-
couraged and settled therein.” The Ger-
man families actually were settled as
tenants and labourers in A^arious parts of
the country. The scheme of the framers
of this measure “seems to have been,”
says Dr. Curry, “ to drive the Roman
Catholic natives out of the kingdom,
which effect it certainly produced in great
numbers but the jilan Avas not found to
ansAA^er so far as the Germans themselves
AA'ere concerned. They AA^ere neither zeal-
ous for the queen’s service nor for the as-
cendency of the Anglican Church. It
seems that only four, out of this great body
enlisted in her majesty’s army, though
she Avas then engaged in a Avar Avith
France, the very poAver Avhich had ravaged
their Palatinate, and left them homeless.
The lords, in an address to the queen in
1711, complain of “that load of debt
which the bringing over numbers of
useless and indigent Palatines had brought
upon them.” As for Dean Swift and the
Tories, the Avay in Avhich the German im-
migration Avas regarded by them is ap-
parent from a passage in the Dean’s
“History of the Four Last Years of
Queen Anne.” He says, “ By this Act,
any foreigner aaLo Avould take the oaths
to the GoA'ernment, and profess himself a
Protestant, of ichatsover denomination, was
immediately naturalised, and had all the
advantages of an English-born subject, at
the expense of a shilling. Most Protes-
tants abroad differ from us in the points
of church government, so that all the
acquisitions by this Act Avould increase

the number of Dissenters ” — Avhich in Dr.
SAvift’s eyes Avas as bad as increasing the
number of Papists. Accordingly, he in-
dicates his opinion of the Avhole scheme
a little loAver doAvn, AAdiere he says, “ It
appeared manifestly, by the issue, that the
public AA'as a loser by every individual
amongst them ; and that a kingdom can
no more be the richer for such an import-
tation than a man can be fatter by a Aven.”
The hiAv for naturalisation of Protestants
Avas in fact soon repealed ; though no
measures Avere spared to drive the Catho-
lics aAvay. And even such of the Roman
Catholic natives as AA^ereafterAvardsAvdlling
to return, were not permitted ; for in 1713
the Commons ordered that “ an address
should be made to her majesty, to desire
that she would be pleased not to grant
licenses to Papists to return into the
kingdom.”

It Avas even dangerous for them to
attempt, or endeavour to hear Avhat passed
in the House of Commons concerning
themseh^es. For in the same year, an
order AA^as made there, “that the sergeant-
at-arms should take into custody all
Papists that Avere or should presume to
come into the galleries.”* The Palatines,
or their descendants, still remain in Ire-
land. They generally “ conformed not
haAung any particular objection against
any religion ; but caring little for the
Ascendency, or the Whig or Tory politics
of the country, at least for a generation
or tAvo.

The Duke of ShreAvsbury Avas lord-lieu-
tenant after Wharton. The duke had de-
serted the Catholic Church, and, like other
converts, Avas more bitter against the com-
munion he had left than those aaLo Avere
born Protestants. He Avas also a Tory.
The Irish Parliament Avas dissolved ; and
on a neAv election, the majority of the
members Avere found to be Whigs. The
short remainder of this reign, so far as
affairs of State in Ireland are concerned,
is quite barren of interest, the great affair
being a quarrel of the House of Commons
against Sir Constantine Phipps, the lord
chancellor, because he Avas a noted Tory
and close friend of the celebrated Doctor
Sacheverell, the clergyman Avho preached
the diA'ine right of kings, and Avas there-
fore held an enemy to the “ glorious Re-
A'olution,” and friend of the “Pretender.”

All these matters AA^ere quite unim-
portant to the great body of the nation.
The Catholics Avere either emigrating to
France, or else AvithdraAving themselA^es
as much as possible from observation ;
some of them conforming and changing
their names ; others reduced to the most
* Commons Journ., Vol. III.

48

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Xntiful artifices in order to preserve the
little patrimony that was left in their
hands ; but most of them sinking into the
condition of tenants or labourers in the
country (all profitable industry in the
towns being prohibited to them) ; and it is
from this time forward that thousands of
the ancient gentry of the country, and
even chiefs of powerful clans, stripped of
their dignities and possessions, and too
poor, or too old to emigrate, had to
descend to the position of cotters and
serfs under the new possessors of the land,
who hated and oppressed them, both as
despoiled Irish and as proscribed Catho-
lics ; and who hate them quite as bitterly
to the present hour.

In the mean time, the war of the Allies
against France had been attended with
many brilliant successes under the Duke
of Marlborough and Prince Eugene.
Some of the most signal defeats ever sus-
tained by the arms of France were
inflicted by the duke, particularly Blen-
heim, Raniillies, Oudenarde, and Mal-
I)laquet. But on the Court revolution
which displaced the Whigs, Marlborough
was deprived of his command and the Duke
of Ormond sent out in his j)lace. Shortly
afterwards the Peace of Utrecht was signed
(11th April, 1713), by which treaty France
recognized the Protestant succession in
England, and the “ Pretender ” was com-
pelled to depart from that kingdom ; the
union of the two monarchies of France and
Spain was provided against, though a
French Bourbon remained on the throne
of Spain ; and to the great loss and hu-
miliation of France, it Avas agreed that
the harbour of Dunkirk should be de-
molished. This treaty gave repose for a
time to the Irish soldiers abroad.

The last year of Anne, therefore, Avas a
year of peace abroad, but of Auolent party
strife and political conspiracy at home.
All the Avorld expected a struggle for the
succession at the moment of the Queen’s
death ; and King James the Third, called
in England “ Pretender,” Avas knoAvn to
have a large party both in that country
and in Scotland, ready to assert his heredi-
tary right. The agitation extended to
Ireland ; but did not reach the Catholic
population, AAdiich Avas quite indifferent to
Stuart or Hanoverian. The queen died
on the 1st of August, 1711, the last of the
house of Stuart recognized as sovereign
of England, and leaving behind her, as to
h.er Irish administration, so black a record
that it Avould have been strange indeed if
the Irish nation had ev'er desired to see the
face of a Stuart again. Yet it is probable
that she Avas secretly a Catholic, like all
her family : and it is certain that she Avas

bitterly displeased at the Protestant suc-
cession,” noAV secured by laAv to the House
of Hanover. It is needless here to enter
into the controversy as to Avhether she Avas
altogether a stranger to the plots for
setting aside that succession, and bringing
in her Catholic brother. She Avas knoAvn
to be deeply grieved and provoked by the
zeal of politicians, both in England and
Ireland, AAdio, desirous of gaining favour
Avith the coming dynasty, endeavoured to
get an act of attainder passed against
“ the Pretender and a bill for that pur-
lAOse in Ireland, Avliich also offered a large
reArard for his apprehension, AA’as only de-
feated by a hasty j)rorogation. Yet “ the
queen hated and despised the Pretender,
to my knoAvledge,” is the assertion of
SAvift in his “Remarks on Burnet’s
History.” Perhaps she did : most

sovereigns hate their heirs-apparent, even
Avhen these are their OAvn sons ; but there
is abundant evidence that she hated the
Elector of Hanover and his mother very
much Avorse.

CHAPTER VII.

1714—1723.

George I. — James III. — Perils of Dean Swift. —
Tories dismissed. — Ormond, Oxford, and Boling-
broke impeached. — Insurrection in Scotland. —
Calm in Ireland. — Arrests. — Irish Parliament. —
“Loyalty” of the CathoUcs.—“ No Catholics exist in
Ireland.” — Priest-catchers. — Bolton lord-lieuten-
ant.— Cause of Sherlock and Annesley. — Conflict
of jurisdiction. — Declaratory Act establishing de-
pendence of the Irish Parliament, — Swift’s Pam-
phlet.— State of the country. — Grafton lord-lieu-
tenant.— Courage of the priests. — Atrocious Bill.

The succession of the Elector of IlanoA^er
had been in no real danger, notAAuthstand-
ing the plotting of a foAv Jacobites in
England ; although the Whig party
anxiously endeavoured to represent the
Tories as desirous of “bringing in the
Pretender.” The distinction, hoAvever,
betAveen Tories and Jacobites is impor-
tant to be borne in mind ; and a Avell-
knoAvn letter of Dean SAvift, avIio, being a
Tory, had been accused of Jacobitism, is
conclusive upon this iwint. In fact, al-
though the English people and the Eng-
lish colony of Ireland Avere at that time
nearly equally divided into Whigs and
Tories, there Avere but feAv Jacobites save
in Scotland and the Korthern counties of
England. Accordingly, on the death of
Anne, the Elector of Hanover was duly
proclaimed in both islands by the title of
King George the First. In Ireland, the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

4D

l)roclamation was made by torcldight, and
•at midnight ; and great efforts were made
to produce the impression that there was
imminent danger of a Jacobite insurrection
“ to bring in the Pretender.” This affec-
tation of alarm seems to have been in-
tended to bring odium, not so much on
the Catholics, as on the Tories: some
urrests Avere made, and it Avas alleged that
on one of the parties arrested letters Avere
found Avritten by Dr. Swift, The popu-
lace of Dublin must at that period have
been violently Hanoverian ; for Lord
(Jrrey tells us that on the dean’s return
to Ireland after the proclamation of the
new king, he dared hardly A'enture forth,
.and Avas pelted by mobs Avhen he made his
appearance. The bitterness and fury of
])arty spirit at that day is curiously illus-
trated by the story of the outrages and
insults Avhich the dean had to encounter,
nven at the hands of persons of rank and
title. Lord Blaney attempted to drive
over him on the public road ; and Swift
petitioned the legislature for protection to
Ins life. He Avas advised by his physician,
he said, to go often on horseback, on
account of his health; “and there being
no place in Avinter so convenient for riding
as the strand towards Howth, your pe-
titioner takes all opportunities that his
business or the Aveather Avdll permit to
take that road.” Here he details the
•scene of Lord Blaney’s attempting to
oA'erturn him and his horse, at the same
time threatening his life Avith a loaded
])istol, and prays protection accordingly.
There is no doubt, hoAvever (Avithout (pies-
tioning the sincerity of the dean’s zeal for
the House of Hanover), that several of his
most intimate friends, especially Lord
Bolingbroke and Bishop Atterbury, Av'ere
engaged in the plot, along Avith the Duke
of Ormond, to prevent the succession of
King George ; and that the suspicions as
to SAvift’s Jacobitism Avere at least plau-
sible. Swift was excessively mortified, or
rather irritated, by the popular manifes-
tations against him. He Avas very covetous
of influence and popularity, and his high,
fierce spirit could ill brook the least
demonstration of public reproach. He
denounced the people of Dublin as a vile,
abandoned race ; but Ave hear no more of
his Jacobitism, and not much of his
Toryism, except that to the last hour
of his life he hated and lampooned Dis- •
senters. |

Immediately after the accession of
George I., all Tories Avere instantly dis-
missed from office, and the Government
placed entirely in the hands of Whigs ;
Avhicli had been the A^ery object of de-
nouncing Tories as Jacobites. When the

D

English Parliament met, articles of im-
peachment Avere quickly found against the
Duke of Ormond, and the Lords Oxford
and Bolingbroke, for high treason, in
having contributed to bring about the
Peace of Utrecht by traitorous means,
and Avith a vicAV of changing the Pro-
testant succession. Bolingbroke and Or-
mond avoided the trial on the impeach-
ment by going to the continent, Avhere
they both offered their services to King
James III. (or the Pretender), then
holding a kind of court in Lorrain,
having been exiled from France at the
peace. The party Avhich adhered to the
exiled prince Avas, in fact, making urgent
preparations for a rising both in Scotland
and in England ; and on the 15th of Sep-
tember, 1715, the Earl of Mar set up the
standard of insurrection, proclaimed King
James the Third at Castletown in Scot-
land, and quickly collected an army of
ten thousand men. These forces Avere
gathered from both Highlands and Loav-
lands, and consisted both of Catholics and
Protestants. The Duke of Argyle, Avith
his poAverful clan of Campbells, Avas
zealous for King George, and Avith other
Highland tribes and some regular troops
met the Earl of Mar at Sheriffmuir, Avhere
a bloody but indecisive battle took place.
A portion of the Jacobite force, marched
soutliAA'ardinto England, Av ere encountered
at Preston, in Lancashire, by the King’s
troops, and, after a short fight, obliged to
surrender at discretion. JMar still kept
his banner displayed until King James the
Third in person landed at Peterhead, on
the east coast of Scotland, in December ;
but very soon afterwards, on the approach
of Argyle Avith a superior force, the enter-
})rise Avas abandoned. The Prince and the
Earl of iMar escaped by sea ; the other
leaders of the insurrection, both in Eng-
land and in Scotland, Avere arrested, tried,
and some of them executed. The rebellion
Avas at an end, and from that day the
exiled Prince may truly be termed, not
James the Third, but the “ Pretender.”
This Scottish insurrection is of small
moment to Irish history, save in so far as
it furnished a pretext for fresh atrocities
upon the unresisting people. There Avas
no insurrection or disturbance Avhatever
during all these events. We do not even
hear of any Irish otffcer of distinction Avho
came from the continent to join the
Pretender’s cause in Scotland ; and the
Earl of Mar, Avho afterwards published a
narration in Paris, affirms that the Duke
of Berwick, Avho Avas very popular Avith
the Irish troops iuFi'ance, had been urged
to take the chief command of the move-
ment, probably in order to draAv some

50

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Irish regiments into it, but that “ the
Duke of Berwick positively refused to re-
jiair to Scotland,” though he was half-
brother to the Pretender. The insurrection
of 1715 was therefore exclusively a Scot-
tish and English affair. Some writers on
this period of Irish history, who are en-
titled to respect,* have given the Irish
Catholics the very doubtful praise of
loyalty, for their extreme quietness and
passiveness at this time. It is true that
they cared not for the Stuart family ; yet,
considering the excessive and abject op-
pression under which they Avere then
groaning, and the slender pros^ject they
had of any mitigation of it, we may
assume that any revolution Avhich Avould
OA'ertiirn the actual order of things, and
give them a chance of redeeming their
nationality Avould have been desirable.
But they Avere disarmed, impoverished,
and discouraged ; could not OAvn a musket,
nor a sabre, nor a horse over five guineas’
A'alue ; had no leaders at home, nor any
possibility of organizing a combined
movement ; so closely AA’ere they Avatched,
and held doAvn Avith so iron a hand. If
they took no part, therefore, in the insur-
rections of 1715 and of 1715, it may be
said (in their favour not to their dis-
honour) that it Avas on account of exhaus-
tion and impotence, not on account of
loyalty. If they had been capable, at that
time, of attachment to the Protestant
succession, and of “ loyalty” to the House
of Hanover, they AA'ould have been even
more degraded than they actually Avere.

IIoAvever, as the Pretender AA'as a
Catholic, and as the Irish Government
kneAV that the oppressed Catholics of that
country, if not ahvays ready for insur-
rection, ought to htive been so, numerous
arrests Avere made during the Scottish
insurrection. There AA'ere still some for-
lorn Catholic peers dAvelling in their
dismal country-seats, debarred from at-
tending Parliament, endeavouring to at-
tract no remark, and too happy if they
could secretly keep in their stables a few
horses for hunting. There Avere also still
some landed gentlemen, though sadly
stripped of their i)ossessions, Avho tried to
keep one another in countenance, and
drank in private the health of King
Louis, and the mole Avhose mole-hill killed
"William of Orange. It Avas desirable
for the Government to take precau-
tions against these sad relics of the once
l^roud nation. Accordingly, the Earls of
Antrim and Westmeath, Lords KetterAulle,

* ]Mr. riowden and Doctor Curry. They both
Avrote at a much later period; and both with a
view of pointing out the folly of the Penal Code, as
Irish Catholics had always, they said, been “ loyal’"
to the House of Hanover.

Cahir, and Dillon, Avith a great number of
untitled gentlemen, Avere suddenly seized
upon and shut uj) in Dublin Castle, “ on
suspicion.” They Avere released Avhen the
insurrection Avas over.

In the mean time the Irish Parliament
met, and Avas opened by lords-justices.
The Houses, especially the Commons, Avere
filled Avith the most fieiy zeal for the Pro-
testant succession, and most desirous of
ingratiating themselves Avith the neAv
dynasty. They passed acts for recogniz-
ing the king’s title — for the security of
his person and government — for attainting-
the Pretender, and offering a reAvard of
£50,000 for his apprehension. The Com-
mons also presented an address to the ncAv
king, entreating his majesty, for the
security of the "Government and for the
ih'otestant interest, to remoA'e the Earl of
Anglesea from all offices of honour and
trust. Lord Anglesea Avas a member of
the Council, and one of the A'ice-treasurers
of the kingdom : he Avas a Tory. Avas sus-
pected of being a Jacobite ; and the rea-
sons assigned in the address for removing
him Avere, that he had caused or procured
the disbanding of great part of the army
in Ireland ; and that he had connived at
the enrolment of Irish Catholics for foreign
serA'ice. They had information,” they
said, “ that many Irish Papists had been,
and continued to be, shipped off from
Dublin and other ports for the service of
the Pretender.” As usual, the main busi-
ness of the Parliament Avas taking further
precautions against the “ common enemy,”
for AAdiich the Pretender’s insurrection in
Scotland served as a false pretence. The
lords-justices, in their speech to this Par-
liament, bear complacent testimony to the
calmness and tranquility in Avhich Ireland
had remained during the troubles, Avhich
iSIr. PloAvdeu, Avith great simplicity, takes
as a compliment to the “loyalty” of the
Catholics— instead of being (Avhat it A\'as)
a congratulation upon the Catholics being
so effectually crushed and trodden doAvii
that they could not rise. This amiable
Avriter cannot conceal his surprise at Avhat
he terms “ the inconsistency of rendering
solemn homage to the exemplary loyalty
of the Irish nation in the most perilous
crisis, and punishing them, at the same
time, for a disposition to treachery, turbu-
lence, and treason.” Kay, he is still more
astonished at finding that “ this very
speech, Avhich bore such honourable testi-
mony to the tried loyalty of the Irish
Catholics, bespoke the disgraceful policy
of keeping and treating them, notAvith-
standing, as a separate people — ‘ "NVe must
recommend to you,’ said the lords-justices,
‘in the present conjuncture, such uua-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

51

niinity in your resolutions as may once
more put an end to all other distinctions
in Ireland than that of Protestant and
Papist.’ ”

It may here he observed, once for all, to
put an end to this delusion about Catholic
loyalty in Ireland, that the Catholics
■would not have been permitted to be loyal,
even if they had been base enough to
desire it — that some abject attempts by
some of them to testify their loyalty were
repulsed, as ■will be hereafter seen — that
when a viceroy or lord-justice speaks of
“ the nation” at the period in question, he
means the Protestant nation exclusively —
nay, that the law was, that no Catholics
existed in Ireland at all. It was long a
favourite fiction of Irish laAv,* “ that all the
effectiveinhabitantsof Ireland are to be pre-
sumed to be Protestants— and that, there-
fore, the Catholics, their clergy, worship,
&c., are not to be supposed to exist, save
for reprehension and punishment.” In-
deed, in the time of George II., Lord-
Chancellor Bowes declared from the
bench, “ that the law does not suppose
any such person to exist as an Irish Ro-
man Catholic ;” and Chief- Justice Robin-
son made a similar declaration.! It ap-
pears plain, then, that the “ loyalty” of
the Catholics towards the House of Han-
over, if indeed there has ever been any such
loyalty, could not have sprung up in their
hearts in the reign of George I., or of
George II.

No new enactments were made in this
session of Parliament in aggravation of the
Penal Code ; but a resolution Avas passed
recommending to magistrates the indispen-
sable duty to put the existing laws into
immediate and rigorous execution, and de-
nouncing those Aviio neglected to do so as
“enemies of the Constitution no slight
nor harmless imputation at that period, nor
one which any magistrate Avould willingly
incur. In fact, the penal laws against
Catholics were put in force at this time,
and during all the remainder of the reign
of George I., with even more than the
customary ferocity, as a design to bring
in the Pretender was supposed to lurk in
every Mass. In many places chapels were
shut up, priests were dragged from their
hiding-places, sometimes from the very
altars, in the midst of divine service,
hurried into the most loathsome dungeons,
and from thence banished for ever from
their native country.J “ To the credit of
those times,” however, observes Brenan,
the ecclesiastical historian, “ it must be

* See “ Scully’s State of the Penal Lav
t Ibid., p. 3J4.

X Curry’s Review.

Ireland.

p. 333.

Brenan’s Eccl. Hist, of

remarked, that the description of mis-
creants usually termed priest-catchers Avere
generally Jews Avho pretended to be con-
verts to the Christian religion, and some
of them assumed even the character of the
priesthood, for the jAurpose of insinuating
themselves more readily into the confi-
dence of the clergy. The most notorious
among them Avas a Portuguese Jew,
named Gorzia (or Garcia). By means of
this AAU’etch seven priests had been ap-
prehended in Dublin, and banished the
kingdom. Of this number, tAvo AA^ere
Jesuits, one Avas a Dominican, one a Fran-
ciscan, and three Avere secular priests.”
These last AA'ere probably “ unregistered”
priests ; or else had not taken the abjura-
tion oath, Avhich Avas then legally obliga-
tory upon them all, under cruel penalties.
Indeed, by means of the various statutes
made against them, it may be affirmed
generally that every priest in Ireland,
Avhether regular or secular, Avas noAV
liable to transportation and to death ;
because out of one thousand and eighty
“registered” priests, only thirty-three
ever took the oath of abjuration. The re-
mainder stood firm, and set at defiance
the terrors AAdiich surrounded them.*

Although the rebellion of the Presby-
terians in Scotland AA^as the sole pre-
tence for this severity, and the very
same laAv Avhich banishes Popish priests
prohibits also Dissenters to accept of
or act by a commission in the militia
or array, yet so partial Avere the resolu-
tions of that parliament, that, at the
same time that they ordered the former
to be rigorously prosecuted, they resolved,
unanimously, “that anypersonAvho should
commence a prosecution against any of
the latter Avho had accepted, or should
accept of a commission in the array or
militia, Avas an enemy to King George
and the Protestant interest.” Thus, of
the only tAvo main objects of the same
laAv, its execution as to one of them Avas
judged highly meritorious, and it Avas
deemed equally culpable even to attempt
it against the other ; though the laAV itself
makes no difference betAveen them. Such
Avas the justice and consistency of our
legislators of that period.

In the year 1719, the Duke of Bolton
being lord-lieutenent, occurred the famous
case of Sherlock against Annesley, Avhich
provoked the Irish House of Lords into a
faint and impotent assertion of their privi-
leges, opened up once more the Avhole
question betAveen English dominion and
Irish national pretensions, and ended in
settling that question in favour of Eng-

* Hibernia Dominicana.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

laud ; setting it, in fact, definitively at
rest until the year 1782.

That cause was tried in the Irish Court
of Exchequer, between Esther Sherlock
and Maurice Annesley, in which the latter
obtained a decree, which, on an appeal to
the Irish House of Lords was reversed.
From this sentence Annesley appealed to
the English House of Lords, who con-
firmed the judgment of the Irish Ex-
chequer, and issued process to put him
into possession of the litigated property.
Esther Sherlock petitioned the Irish Lords
against the usurped authority of England,
and they, having taken the opinion of the
judges, resolved that they would support
their honour, jurisdiction, and privileges,
by giving effectual relief to the petitioner.
Sherlock was put into possession by the
Sheriff of Kildare ; an injunction issued
from the Court of Exchequer in Ireland,
pursuant to the decree of the English
Lords, directing him to restore Annesley ;
the Sheriff (let his name be honoured !),
Alexander Burro wes, refused obedience.
He was protected in a contumacy Avhich
so nobly contrasts the wonted servility
of the judges, by the Irish Lords,
who addressed a powerful State paper
to the throne, recapitulating the rights
of Ireland, her independent parlia-
ment, and jieculiar jurisdiction. They
went further, for they sent the Irish
barons to jail ; but the king having the
address of the Irish Lords laid before the
English House, the latter reatfirmed their
proceedings, and supplicated the throne
to confer some mark of special favour on
the servile judges, who, in relinquishing
their jurisdiction, had betrayed the
liberties of their country. An Act was
at once passed in the English Parliament,
enacting and declaring that the king,
with the advice of the Lords and Com-
mons of England, “hath had of right, and
ought to have, full power and authority
to make laws and statutes of sufficient
force and validity to bind the j)Cople and
the kingdom of Ireland.

“And be it further enacted and de-
clared, l)y the authority aforesaid, that
the House of Lords of Ireland have not,
nor of right ought to have, any jurisdic-
tion to judge, affirm, or reverse any
judgment, sentence, or decree, given or
made in any court within the same king-
dom ; and that all proceedings before the
said House of Lords, ui)on any such
judgment, sentence, or decree, are, and
are hereby declared to be, utterly null
and void, to all intents and x>urpjses
whatever.”

This Declaratory Act is the last of the
statutes claiming such a jurisdiction. The

Irish Parliament had to submit for the
time ; but the principles of Molyneux,
soon after enforced with far greater
power by Swift, Avorked in men’s minds,
and at last brought forth Flood and
Grattan, and caused the army of the
Volunteers to spring out of the earth.
Once more, hoAve\^er, it should be borne
in mind that this constitutional question
Avas a question between Protestant Eng-
land and her Protestant colony alone ;
and that the Catholic Irish nation had at
that time no more faAmur or indulgence to
hope for at the hands of a luarliament in
Dublin than of a parliament in London.

The Declaratory Act did not pass the
English Parliament Avithout opposition,
especially in the Commons, Avhere Mr.
Pitt made himself conspicuous by his
argument against it. It Avas finally
carried by 110 votes against 88. The
Duke of Leeds, in the Lords, made a
poAverful protest against the bill, but in
vain.

In the same year, 1719, an act Avas
passed in the Irish Parliament “ for
granting some ease and indulgence to the
Protestant Dissenters in the exercise of
their religion.” The Duke of Bolton, in
his speech, Avas pleased to commend this
act most Avarmly, as a step towards con-
solidating the Protestant interest against
the common enemy. The duke earnestly
pleads for the necessity of union : “ in
the Avords,” he says, “ of one of those
excellent bills passed this day — I mean an
union in interest and affection amongst
all his majesty’s subjects.” The Auceroy
did not CA'en feel it necessary to say •• all
his majesty’s Protestant subjects,” knoA\'-
ing that this Avould be understood ; so
firmly established Avas the State maxim,
that the laAv knoAvs not of the existence
of an Irish Catholic.

The year 1820 is memorable for the
publication of Dean SAvift’s first pamphlet
on Irish affairs — his Proposal for the Use
of Irish Mnnufacturef He had noAv been
for seven years Dean of St Patrick’s : he
had Avitnessed the enactment of many a
penal laAV against Catholics : Avithin hear-
ing of his OAvn deanery-house the Protes-
tant mob, led on by priest-catchers, had
dragged clergymen in their vestments out
of obscure chapels amidst the lamenta-
tions of their helpless flocks, but he had
never, in any of his numerous Avritings,
uttered a syllable of remonstrance against
this tyranny. It might be supposed that
in this first of his Tracts relating to an
Irish subject, and a subject, too, in AAdiich
people of all religions Avere deeply in-
terested, he might delicately coiiA’ey some
hint that neither the manufacturing nor

IlISTOKY OF IRELAND.

53

any other material interest of a country
could be promoted or developed while the
great mass of its people were held in
degrading slavery, disquieted in their pro-
perty, and outraged in their persons by
the extraordinary laws which he saw in
operation around him. But not one word
of all this does he write. He was well
enough aware, however, of the growing
misery and destitution of the country
people ; and says in this tract, •• Whoever
travels this country, and observes the face
of nature, or the faces, and habits, and
dwellings of the natives, will hardly think
himself in a land where either law,
religion, or common humanity is pro-
fessed.”

Again : “I would now expostulatealittle
with our country landlords, who, by un-
measurable screwing and racking their
tenants all over the kingdom, have already
reduced the miserable i)eople to a Avorse
condition than tlie peasants in France, or
the vassals in Germany and Boland ; so
that the Avhole species of Avhat Ave call
sul^stantial farmers Avill, in a very feAv
years, be utterly at an end.”

It is very singular, also, that altliough
he justly attributes the decay of manufao
tiires to the greedy commercial policy of
England in suppressing the Av'oollen trade
and other branches of industry — and
although, at the moment he Avrote, all the
island Avas ringing Avith the Sherlock-and-
Annesley case and the Declaratory Act,
this future author of the Drapier’s Letters
never thinks of suggesting that laws for
goA^erning Ireland should be made in Ire-
land, in order that the English monopo-
lists might no longer have the power of
ruining our country by their oavu Luavs.
It seems the time Avas not yet ripe for such a
pretension on the piwt of Irish patriots ;
though, that the dean very Avell kneAv the
nature of the grievances he complains of,
is evident from his savage sarcasm about
the fate of Arachne. Ireland Avas becom-
ing covered Avith herds of sheep, to pro-
duce Avool for the English market, Avhile
English laAvs prevented its manufacture
at home.

“The fable, in Ovid, of Arachne and
Pallas, is to this purpose : The goddess
had heard of one Arachne, a young virgin,
A^ery famous for spinning and Aveaving :
they both met upon a trial of skill ; and
Pallas finding herself almost equalled in
her own art, stung Avith rage and envy,
knocked her rival doAvn, turned her into
a spider, enjoining her to spin and Aveave
forever, out of her OAvn bowels, and in a
very narroAV compass. I confess that,
from a boy, I ahvays pitied poor Arachne,
and could never heartily love the goddess, |

on accoAint of so cruel and unjust a sen-
tence; Avhich, however, is fully executed
upon us by England, Avith further addi-
tions of rigour and severity, for the
greatest part of our boAvels and A’itals is
extracted Avithout allowing us the liberty
of spinning and Aveaving them.”

Swift had not yet ventured to take the
leading part Avhich he soon after bore in
Irish politics ; nor did he ever take any
part in them Avith a broadly national aim.
lie liv'ed at that time very much Avith his
friends Sheridan and Doctor Delany ; and
his friends, as well as himself, wished to be
considered Englishmen.*

The Catholic people remained all those
years perfectly quiet and subdued. In
them all national aspiration seemed dead;
so that the numerous enterprises projected
all over Europe in favour of the Pretender
never counted upon them. One of these
enterprises Avas undertaken by the
Spaniards, under the auspices of Canlinal
Alberoni ; and the Duke of Ormond Avas
placed in command of a Spanish squadron,
to effect a landing somewhere in the
British Islands. The Irish Catholics re-
mained quite unmoved : they Avere, in the
Avords of Mr PloAvden, “ sternly loyal.”
It Avould be more accurate to say they
Avere utterly prostrate, hopeless, and in-
different ; and if they had been otherwise,
the name of the Duke of Ormond Avouhl
have been enough to repel them from any
cause in Avhich he Avas to be a leader.

The Duke of Grafton, as lord-lieutenant,
prorogued the session of Parliament, and
in his speech Avas pleased particularly to
recommend to them to keep a Avatchful
eye upon the Pa])ists ; since I have
reason to belieA’-e,” says he, “tliat the
number of popish priests is daily increas-
ing in this kingtlom, and already far ex-
ceeds Avhat by the indulgence of the law
is alloAved.” The members of Parliament,
in times of recess, and Avhen tliey Avere at
their country-seats, must have followed the
viceroy’s exhortation, and kept a Avatchful
eye upon the Papists ; for the horror and
alarm of the Protestant interest became
more violent than ever before ; and Avhen
Parliament assembled, in 1723, it Avas in an
excellent frame of mind to do battle Avith
the common enemy. The Duke of Grafton,
on meeting I’arliament, recommended

* In remonstrating' with Mr. Pope on “ having
made no distinction in his letters between the Eng-
lish gentry of this kingdom and the savage old
Irish," Swift adds, "Dr Delany came to visit me
three days ago on purpose to complain of those pas-
sages of your letters.” Delany was the son of a con-
vert ; and though of pure Irish breed, at once took
rank, in his own opinion, as an Englishman. There
have always been many Englishmen of this species
in Ii'eland.

54

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

several new laws — “ particularly for
preventing more elfectually the eluding of
those in being against popish priests,” and
the members had generally brought to
town shocking tales illiisti'ating the
audacity of these outlaAved ecclesiastics,
in celebrating their Avorship, sometimes
even in the open day. It Avas full time,
they said, to take decisive measures.

And in truth, the ardent zeal and con-
stancy, utterly unknoAvn to fear, of the
Irish Catholic priests during that AA^hole
century, are as admirable in the eyes of
all just and impartial men as they Avere
abominable and monstrous in the eyes of
the Protestant interest. The}" often had
to traverse the sea betAveen Ireland and
iTance, in fishing smacks, and disguised
as fishermen, carrying communications to
or from Home, required by the laAvs of
their church, though they kneAv that on
their return, if discovered, the penalty
Avas the pena-lty of high treason, that is
death. When in Ireland, they had often
to lurk in caA-es, and make fatiguing
journeys, never sure that the jjriest-
imnters AV'ere not on their trail ; yet all
this they braved Avith a courage Avhich, in
any other cause, Avould have been reckless
desperation. The English colonists could
not comprehend such chivalrous devotion
at all ; and could deAdse no other theory
to account for it than that these priests
must be continually plotting Avitii foreign
Catholics to overthrow the Protestant in-
terest, and plunder them of their neAvly-
gotten estates. This Avas the secret terror
that ahvays urged them upon fresh
atrocities.

Accordingly, a series of resolutions AA'as
agreed upon and reported by the Com-
mons ; that Popery had increased, partly
oAving to the many shifts and devices the
j)riests had for evading the laAvs, partly
oAving to the neglect of magistrates in not
searching them out and punishing them —
that “it is highly prejudicial to the Pro-
testant interest that any person married
to a popish Avife should bear any office or
employment under his majesty.” This
measure Avas thought needful, inasmuch
as some magistrates, luiAdiig married
Catholics, Avere obserA-ed to be remiss in
taking informations against their AviA'es’
confessors, knoAving that they Avouldhave
no peace in their house aftei’Avards. The
resolutions further recommended, that no
convert ( to the Established Church) should
be capable of any office, nor practise as a
solicitor or attorney for seven years after
his conversion, nor “ unless he brings a
certificate of having received the sacra-
ment thrice in every year during the said
term ;” further, that all converts should

duly enroll their certificates of conversion
in the proper office. On the basis of these
resolutions a bill Avas prepared ; and the
language and behaviour of Parliament on
this occasion seems to have been even
more AdndictiA"e and atrocious than had
ever been Avitnessed before, eA'en in an
Irish legislature. One of the most zealous
promoters of this bill, in a laboured speech,
informed the House, that of all countries
AA'herein the reformed religion prevailed,
Sweden AA"as observed to be most free from
those irreconcilable enemies to all Pro-
testant goA'ernments, the Catholic priests ;
and that this happy exemption, so needful
to the Protestant interest, AA-as obtained by
a Avholesome practice Avhich prevailed in
that fortunate land, namely, the practice
of castrating ail popish priests Avho Avere
found there. A clause to this effect Avas
introduced into the neAv bill.* It passed
both Houses, and Avas presented on the
15th of Xovember to the Duke of Grafton,
Avith an earnest request that his Grace
“ Avould recommend the same in the most
effectual manner to his majesty.” His
Grace Avas pleased to return this ansAver ;
“ I haA"e so much at heart a matter AAiiich
I recommended to the consideration of
Parliament, at the beginning of this
session, that the House of Commons may
depend upon a due regard, on my part, to
Aviiat is desired.” With the Duke’s re-
commendation the bill Avas, as usual, for-
AAuirded to England. Eo objection to it
had occurred either to his Grace, or to
any peer or commoner in Ireland ; but an
Irish agent in France presented a mem-
orial on the subject to the Duke of
Orleans, then regent. The tAvo nations
Avere at peace, and Cardinal Fleury,
French prime minister, had considerable
influence Avith IMr Walpole. A strong re-
presentation AA'as made by order of Fleury
against the iicav bill.f As it has never
suited British policy that its measures in
Ireland should become the subject of dis-
cussion and notoriety amongst the civilized
nations of the continent (Avhere English
reputation for liberality has to be main-
tained), the Council disapproA^ed the bill ;
and this Avas the first occasion on AAdiicli
any penal laAV against Catholics met Avith
such an obstacle in England. Some
Avriters on Irish history haA'e been in-
clined to carry this failure of so atrocious
a bill to the credit of human nature ; and
Mr. PloAvden, after narrating the French
interposition, says, Avith his usual amiable
credulity, “ but surely it needed no Gallic
interference,” &c.

At any rate, the bill AA-as lost. The de-

* Curry's Re\'iew'. PloAvden.
t Brenan, Led. Hist. PloAvden. Curry.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

55

pendence of Ireland upon the crown of
England saA'ed the Catholics for once from
at least one ignominious outrage. But
there were already laws enough in ex-
istence to satisfy, it might be thought, the
most sanguinary Protestantism.

His Grace the lord-lieutenant, in his
speech to that Parliament, at the close of
the session, in order to console them for
the loss of their favourite bill, gave them
to understand, “ that it miscarried merely
hy its not having been brought into the
llouse before the session was so far ad-
vanced.” And after earnestly recommend-
ing to them, in their several stations, the
care and preservation of the public peace,
he added, ‘-that, in his 02)inion, that
would he greatly promoted by the vigorous
execution of the laws against popish
priests ; and that he would contribute his
part towards the prevention of that grow-
ing evil, by giving proper directions that
such persons only should be put into tlie
commissions of the peace as had dis-
tinguished themselves by their steady
adherence to the Protestant interest”

Everybody knew what that meant — in-
creased vigilance in hunting down clergy-
men, and in discovering and appropriating
the property of laymen ; nor is their any
reason to think that his Grace’s exhorta-
tions were addressed to unwilling ears.

CHAPTER VII L

1723-1727.

Swift and Wood's Copper. — Drapier's Letters. —
Claim of Independence. — Primate Boulter. —
Swift popular with the Catholics. — Ilis feeling- to-
wards Catholics. — Desolation of the country. —
Rack-rents. — Absenteeism. — Great Distress. —
Swift’s modest Proposal. — Death of George I.

VThile the Irish Parliament was so earn-
estly engaged in their measures against
popish priests. Dean Swift, who had lived
in great quiet for three or four years,
writing Gulliver’s Travels in the country,
suddenly plunged impetuously into the
tumult of Irish politics. His indignation
was inflamed to the highest pitch— not by
the ferocity of the "legislature against
Catholics, but by Wood’s copper halfpence.
The country, he thought, was on the verge
of ruin, not by reason of the tempest of
intolerance, rapacity, fraud, and cruelty,
which raged ever it on every side, but by
reason of a certain copper coinage to the

amount of £108,000, for which one William
Wood had taken the contract and received
the patent. Here was the crying griev-
ance of Ireland.

It is necessary that the history of this
transaction should be taken out of the
domain of rhetoric, and established upon a
basis of fact. A great scarcity and need
of copper money was felt in Ireland ; and
this is not denied by the dean. AVilliam
Wood, Avhom Swift always calls, “hard-
wareman and bankrupt,” but who was, in
fact, a large proprietor, and owner or
renter of several extensive iron Avorks in
England,* proposed to contract for the
supply needed, and his proposal Avas ac-
cepted. The national, or rather colonial,
jealousy Avas at once inflamed ; and al-
ready, long before Dean Swift’s first letter
on the subject, the two Houses had A’oted
addresses to the croAvn, accusing the
patentee of fraud, affirming that the "terms
of the jiatent had been infringed as to the
quality of the coin, and that its circula-
tion Avould be highly prejudicial to
the revenue and commerce of the
country. The Commons, Avith great
exaggeration, declared that even had the
terms of the patent been complied A\ath,
the nation Avould have suffered a loss
of at least 150 per cent. ; and indeed the
Avhole clamour rested on jiartialor ignorant
misrepresentation. Wood’s coin Avas as
good as any other copper coinage of that
day; and the assertion of its opponents
(repeated by Swift), that th.e intrinsic Avas
no more than one-eighth of the nominal
value of the metal, must be taken Avitli
great caution. If this assertion had even
been true, the matter AA'ould haA^c been of
little consequence, because AAdien coinage
descends beloAv gold and silver, it comes
to be only a kind of counters for the con-
A’-enience of exchange, deriving its value
from the sanction of the government Avhich
issues it ; and being receivable in payment
of taxes, it has for all its j)urposes the
Avhole Anlue Avhich it denotes on its face.f
Erom the specimens, hoAAnver, of Wood’s
halfpence preserved in the British IMuseum,
and facsimiles of AA’hich are giA'en in some
editions of SAvift’s Avorks, it is clear that
the coins Avere of a goodly size, and Avith
a fair impression ; and by an assay made
at the mint, under Sir Isaac IS'eAvton and
his tAvo associates, it Avas ju’oved that in
Aveight and in fineness these coins rather
exceeded than fell short of the conditions

* Coxe. Memoirs of Sir Robert AValpolc.
t The present base coinage of cent and tb.ree-
cent pieces in the UniLcd States is an exam])le of
this. It is intrinsically of no value at all, being
composed of the vilest of metal; yet it answers all
the purposes of small change, without injury to
anybody.

56

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

of the patent.* However, the clamour Avas
so violent, tliat “ the collectors of the
king’s customs very honestly refused to
take them, and so did almost ever}' body
else,” says Swift in his first letter of M.
13. Drapier.” So that the crusade against
AVood and his halfpence Avas already in
full ])rogress before the dean Avrote a Avord
on the subject.

It is observable further, that this
matter concerning Wood and his coinage
did not really touch the great (luestion of
Irish national independence, or the in-
solent claim of the English Parliament to
make laAvs for Ireland ; because the
matter of coining money belongs to the
royal prerogative ; and not one man of the
English colony in Ireland, not SAvift him-
self, pretended to question the authority
of the Iving of England. In short, no
more trifling occasion ever produced so
brilliant and memorable a result. It
seemed to be but au occasion, no matter
noAv silly, that Swift Avantcd. Any peg
would do to hang his essays upon ; and
ne used the affair of Wood, as Pabelais
liad used the legend of Gargantua and
Pantagruel, to introduce under cover of
mucli senseless ribaldry, the gravest
opinions on politics and goA'crnment.
Early in 172-t appeared the first letter,
AA'ritten in the character of a Dublin shop-
keeper. It Avas soon folloAA*ed liy six
others, besides letters to William Wood
himself, “ Observations on the Eeport of
the Lords of the Council,” ‘‘ Letter to the
Avhole People of Ireland,” and many
ballads and songs Avhich avcto calculated
for the Dublin ballad-singers. These pro-
ductions Avere remarkable not only for
their fierce sarcasm and denunciation
directed against Wood himself, but for
the constantly insinuated, and sometimes
plainly expressed, assertion of the national
right of Ireland (namely, of the English
colony in Ireland) to manage her oavii
affairs. This, in fact, Avas alAvays in his
mind. “ Eor my OAvn part,” obserA'cs 31.
13. Drapier, “ Avho am but one man, of
obscure origin, I do solemnly declare in
the presence of Almighty God, that I Avill
suffer the most ignominious and torturing
death rather than submit to receAe this
accursed coin, or any other that is liable
to the same olqections, until they shall be
forced upon me by a laiv of mij men
countnj ; and if that shall ever happen, I
Avill iransi>ort myself into some foreign
land, and eat the bread of poverty among
a free j)eople. Indeed, Avhile he seems to

* Report of the Committee of the Privy Council.
SAvift replied that IVood must have furnished the
committee with coins specially made for examina-
tion ; -wlikh is quite possible.

be directing all the torrent of his indigna-
tion against the unlucky hardAvare-man,
he very plainly personifies in him the re-
lentless domination of England, andreallA’"
labours to excite, not personal Avratli
against Wood, but patriotic resentment
against the British Government. A very
admirable example, both of his style of
denunciation, and of his exquisite art in
insinuating his leading idea amidst a per-
fect deluge of Avitty ribaldry, is seen in
this excellent passage. I am A'ery
sensible,” says the AA'orthy Drapier, “ that
such a Avork as I have undertaken might
have Avorthily employed a much better
pen ; but Avlien a house is attempted
to be robbed, it often happens that the-
Aveakest in the family runs first to stop
the door. All my assistance Avas some
informations from an eminent person,
Avhereof I am afraid I have spoiled a fcAv
by endeavouring to make them of a piece
AA'ith my oavu productions, anrl the rest I
Avas not able to manage. I Avas in tb.e
case of DaA’id, aaIio could not move in the
armour of Saul; and therefore chose to
attack this uncircumcised ITiilistine
(Wood I mean) Avith a sling and a stone.
And I may say, for Wood’s honour, a'
Avell as my oAvn, that he resembles Goliath
in many circumstances very applicable to
the present purpose. For Goliath had a
helmet of brass on his head, and he Avas
armed Avith a coat of mail, and the Aveight
of the coat Avas 5000 shekels of brass ; aiul
he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and
a target of brass betAveen his shoulders.
In short, he Avas like 3Ir. Wood, all over
brass, and he defied the armies of the
liAung God. Goliath’s conditions of combat
Avere likcAvise the same Avith those of 3Ir.
Wood : if he prevail against us, then shalt
ice he his servants; but if it happens that
I prevail over him, I renounce the other
part of the condition. He .shall never be
a serA^ant of mine, for I do not think him
fit to be trusted in any honest man’s shop.”
But in the fourth letter of 31. B. Dra-
pier,” Dean iSAvift disclosed and deA'eloped
Avithout reserA'e his real sentiments, Avhich,
he says, “have often sAvelled in my
breast,” on the absolute right of the Irish
nation (that is, of the English colony
there) to govern itself independently of
the English Barliament. On this point
he thoroughly adopts and maintains the
Avhole doctrine of 3Ir. 3Iolyneux ("an
’ English gentleman born here ”), and tie
nounces the usurpation of the London
Barliament in assuming to bind Ireland by
their laAvs. The proof that SAvift, in affirm-
ing the rights of the Irish nation, meant
only the English colony, is seen clearly
enough in a passage of this A'ery letter.

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

57

“ One great merit I am sure we have
Avhich those of English birth can have
no pretence to — that our ancestors
reduced this kingdom to the obedience
of England, for which we have been
rewarded with a worse climate — the pri-
vilege of being governed by laws to which
we do not consent — a ruined trade — a
house of peers without jurisdiction —
almost an incapacity for all employ-
ments, and the dread of Wood’s halfpence.”
llising :md Avarming as he proceeds, he at
length fairly declares, “ In this i^oint we
haA'e nothing to do Avith English ministers,
and I should be sorry to leave it in their
poAvei; to redress this grievance or to en-
force it, for the report of the committee
has given me a surfeit. The remedy is
wholly in your OAvn hands ; and therefore
I have digressed a little in order to refresh
and continue that spirit so seasonably
raised among you, and to let you see that
by the laAvs of God, of nature, of nations,
and of your country, you are, and ought
to be, as free a people as your brethren in
England.”

Eor printing this letter, Harding, the
printer. Avas prosecuted ; but Avhen the in-
dictment against him Avas sent up to the
Dublin grand-jnry, every man of them had
in his hand a co]>y of another letter, en-
titled “ Seasonable Advice to the Grand-
Jury,” &c., Avhich it seems they took to
heart, for they threAV out the bill. A pro-
clamation Avas then issued from the Castle
offering a reward for discovery of the
author, and signed by Lord Carteret, then
viceroy. Everybody knew the author ;
but public spirit in Dublin Avas then so
high and inflamed that the government
could not venture to arrest the Dean. On
the very day the proclamation Avas issued,
he publicly taunted Carteret at the levee
A\dth thus persecuting a poor, honest
tradesman, as he called “the Drapier;”
adding, “ I suppose your lordship expects
a statue in copper for this service you have
done to Wood.” In short, the cause of
the halfpence AA^as utterly lost: nobody
would take them or touch them ; thg En-
glish government had to AvithdraAv the
patent; William Wood turned his old
copper to some other use in the hardAvare
line ; but received from the English Go-
vernment a compensation in the shape of
a pension of three thousand pounds for
eight years.*

Eroni this time the Dean Avas the most
popular man in Ireland ; he became the idol
of the shopkeepers and tradespeople. The
Drapier Avas a sign over hundreds of shops ;
the Drapier Avas an honoured toast at all
merry-makings ; and precisely as he greAv
* Coxe, Life of Walpole.

in popularity in Ireland, he became a more
intolerable thorn in the side of the king’s
servants in that country, and especially of
Primate Boulter. Boulter Avas appointed
Primate in this A^ery year, and one of the
earliest letters published in his elaborate
correspondence shoAvs the extreme un-
easiness Avith Avhich that devoted servant
of the English interest and doer of “ the
king’s business ” regarded the spirit
aroused by the common resentment of all
the people of all religions and races against
the copper of Wood. He says in this
letter: “I find by my oAvn and others’
inquiries that the people of every religion,
country, and party here, are alike set
against AYood’s halfpence, and that their
agreement in this has had a very unhappy
influence on the state of this nation, by
bringing on intimacies betAveen Papists
and Jacobites and the Whigs, Avho before
had no correspondence Avith them : so that
’tis questionable Avhether, if there Avcre
occasion, justices of the peace could be
found Avho AAmuld be strict in disarming
Papists.” Eor the next eighteen years
this Primate Boulter Avas the real gover-
nor of Ireland. Thirteen times in that
period he Avas one of the lords justices,
and as he had the full confidence of Wal-
pole, and Avas fully imlDued with that
minister’s A\"ell-knoAvn principle (the prin-
ciple, namely, that all could be done by
intrigue and corruption), Ave find him
really dictating to successive viceroys of
Ireland, and also Avarning the English
GoAxn’nment from time to time Avho Avere
the persons in Ireland Avho desei'Amd en-
couragement and employment as the
“ king’s servants,” and Avho they AA^ere
that merited reprobation as the “king’s
enemies,” Avho obstructed him in doing
the king’s business. It is needless to
observe that he became instantly a bitter
enemy to Dean SAvift, and more than once
cautioned the ministry against Avhatever
representations might come from that
quarter.*

Whether Swift so intended or not, he
became, in fact, highly popular Avitli the
Catholics of the kingdom. Hot that lie
ever sjioke of them Avithout disdain and
aversion. “ The Popish priests,” says he,
“ are all registered, and Avithout per-
mission (Avhich I hope Avill not be granted)
they can have no successors.” (Letter
concerning Sacramental Test.) In short,
Avhenever he does allude to them at all, it
is always Avith a vieAv of intimating that
he has no appeal to make to them, not
regarding them as a part of the nation. In
the famous prosecuted letter itself — al-

* Letter dated 10th Feb., 1725, from the Frimato
to Duke of Newcastle.

58

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

though it is cacldressed “To the Wliole
People of Ireland” — he takes occasion
thus to repel one of the assertions of
Wood: — “That the Papists have entered
into an association against his coin, al-
though it be notoriously known that ihep
never once offered to stir in the matter.”
In his address, then, to the “Whole
People,” he speaks of the Papists as
“they.” But notwithstanding this. Catho-
lic farmers had wool and grain to sell ;
they also had their daily traffic, and if the
introduction of that perilous copper Avas
to be so fatal to the Protestants, it could
not be good for them. JNIoreover, the bold
assertion of Ireland’s right to indepen-
dence pleased them Avell. They knew, it
is true, that thcj" Avere not for the lu'esent
considered as actiA^e citizens ; yet being
five to one,* they also felt that if the
lieaA^y pressure of British domination Avere
once taken off, they or their children could
-lOt fail to assert for themselves a recog-
nized place in a ucav Irish nation. Up to
the present date, the Irish Catholic free-
holders A'oted at elections to Parliament
(though their suffrage Avas cramped by
oaths, and the}^ could only vote for a Pro-
testant candidate), and they could still
make their Aveight felt in the scale either
of Whig or Tory, either in faAmur of the
king’s sei’A'ants or the king’s enemies, as
Dr. Boulter called them respectUely. No
Avonder, therefore, that the primate began
to AueAV Avith great alarm a community of
feeling arising betAA'een the Catholics and
either of the Protestant parties, and he
soon cast about for a remedy, and found
one.

Dean SAvift Avas never openly at- 1
tacked by the primate, but he had
been for some years subjected to the
spy- system, Avhich is ahvays so es-
sential an arm of English gOAxmient
in Ireland, and had found it necessary to
use great precautions in securing his
manuscripts, as aa'cII as his ordinary letters,
from the vigilant espionage of the govern-
ment.t When Wood’s patent Avas Avith-
draAvn, and all apprehensions Avere over
concerning the half pennies, he Avas de-
sirous to AvithdraAv for a Avhile from the
capital and from the neighbourhood of Dr.
Boulter's detectives, and Avent to the quiet
retreat of Quilca, in the County Cavan,
AA’here his friend Dr. Sheridan had a house.
Here he finished “ Gulliver,” Avhich had
been suspended for a Avdiile, and prepared
it for the iiress ; enjoying, by the shore of

* Primate Poulter writes to the Archbishop of
Canterbury: “There are probably in this kingdom
five Papist's at least to one Protestant.” This Avas
in the year 1727.

t Koscoe’s Life of Swift ; Sir Walter Scott’s Life.

Lough Ramor, the conversation of Stella,
and the “blessings of a country life,”
Aviiich he describes to be

“Far from our debtors,

No Dublin letters.

Not seen by your betters.”

The next j^ear StAuft Avent to England,
but before he Avent Primate Boulter Avrote
to Sir Robert Walpole a letter AAffiich AA^ell
illustrates the Augilance of that prelate in
the king’s service, and also the estimation
in Avdiich he held Dr. SAvdft. He says,
“ The general report is that Dean SAvift
designs for England in a little time, and
Ave do not quesdon his endeavours to mis-
represent his majesty’s friends here AAdier-
ever he finds an opportunity. But he is
so Avell knoAvn, as Avell as the disturbances
he has been the fomenter of in this king-
dom, that Ave are under no fear of his
being able to disserve any of his majesty’s
faithful serA-ants by anything that is
knoAvn to come from him ; but A\*e could
AAush some eye AA-ere had to AAdiat shall be
attempted on your side the Awater.”

No further political eA^ent of much con-
sequence occurred in Ireland during the
short remainder of the reign of George I.
All accounts of that period represent the
country as sinking loAA^er in misery and
distress. SAvift's graphic tracts and let-
ters give a painfully AUA'id picture of
the desolation of the rural districts,
lie laments often the Avanton and utter
destruction of timber, AAdiichhad left bare
and hungry-looking great regions that
had but lately AA'aved Avith ancient Avoods.
NeAv proprietors, under the A^arious
confiscations, ha(l alAA^ays felt, in those
times of revolutions, that their posses-
sions Avere held by a precarious tenure ;
there might at any moment be a neAv con-
fiscation, or a ncAV' resumption ; therefore,
as the AA Oods AA Ould bring in their value at
once they AA^ere felled remorselessly, and
often sold at a mere trifle for the sake of
getting ready money. It has been already
seen that “ the commissioners of confis-
cated estates” in King William’s time*
speal<^)f this destruction of the forests as
a greAuous loss to the nation. They esti-
mate that on one estate in Kerry trees to
the value of £20,000 had been cut doAvn
or destroyed ; on another estate £27,000
AA'orth ; and in some cases they say,
“ Those on Avhom the confiscated estates
have been bestoAA-ed, or their agents, haA'e
been so greedy to seize upon the most
trifling profits, that large trees have been
cut doAvn and sold for sixpence each.”
The consequence of all this Avanton Avaste

* See their report at the end of MacGeoghegau’s
History.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

59

was soon lamentably observable in the
nakedness of this once well-wooded
island, where in Dean Swift’s time it
would have been impossible, as he tells
us, to find timber either for shipbuilding
or for the houses of the people.

The condition of the farmers and
labouring people was extremely hard in
the latter years of this reign. As Catho-
lics v^ere subjected to severe restrictions
if they lived in trading or manufacturing
towns, their only resource was to become
tenants for short terms, or at will, to an
alien and hostile race of landlords, and
this at most oppressive rents. “ Another
great calamity,” sa^^s Swift,* “ is the ex-
orbitant raising of the rent of lands.
Upon the determination of all leases made
before the year IGDO, a gentleman thinks
he has but indifferently improved his
estate if he has only doubled his rent-roll.
Farms are screwed up to a rack-rent ;
leases granted but for a small term of
years ; tenants tied down to hard condi-
tions, and discouraged from cultivating the
lands they occupy to the best advantage,
by the certainty they have of the rent
being raised on the expiration of their
lease proportionably to the improvements
tliey shall make. Thus it is that honest in-
dustry is restrained ; the farmer is a slave
to his landlord ; and it is well if he can
cover his family with a coarse homespun
frieze.” Another of the evils complained
of by the Dean is the prevalence of ab-
senteeism, which carried over to England,
according to his estimate, half a million
sterling of Irish money per annum, with
no return. Another still was the propen-
sity of proprietors to turn great tracts of
land into sheep pastures, which, of course,
drove away tenants, increased the wretch-
ed competition for farms, and still more
increased rents. It was this which made
Swift exclaim, with his bitter humour,
“Ajax was mad when he mistook a flock
of sheep for his enemies ; but we shall
never be sober till we are of the same way
of thinking.” To all these miseries must
be added the decay of trade and com-
merce, caused directly by the jealous and
greedy commercial policy of England ;
and this grievancepressed quite as heavily
upon the Protestant as on the Catholic.

So uniform has been the system of
English rule in Ireland, that the descrip-
tion of it given a century and a half ago
fits with great accuracy and with even
heavier aggravations at this day. The
absentee rents are now ten times as great
in amount as they were then ; and, al-
though the prohibition against exporting
woollen cloth is now no longer in force,

* “ The present miserable state of Ireland.”

yet its effect has been perpetuated so
thoroughly that the Irish do not now,as they
did then, even manufacture woollen cloth
for home consumption. In the year 1723 a
petition was presented to Parliament from
the Avoollen drapers, clothiers, and weavers
of Dublin, setting forth the decay and al-
most destruction of their industry, the
sore distress and privations of thousands
of families that had once lived comfortably
by prosecuting these trades, and asking for
inquiry and relief. But an Irish Par-
liament, absolutely controlled by an Eng-
lish Privy Couneil, was quite incapable of
applying any remedy ; so the affairs of
trade had fallen from bad to worse, until
at the close of this reign there was immi-
nent danger of a destructive famine — that
scourge which foreign domination has
made so familiar to Ireland. It was in
1729 that Swift wrote and published his
“ Modest Proposal ” for relieving the mis-
eries of the people by cooking and eating
the children of the poor — a i>iece of the
fiercest sarcasm, steeped in all the concen-
trated bitterness of his soul ; which,
however — so grave is the irony — has been
sometimes taken by foreign writers as a
serious project of relief.

King George died on the 11th of June,
1727, just after settling the preliminaries
of a peace Avith the Emperor and Spain,
which was shortly afterwards signed at
Seville (but to the exclusion of the Em-
peror) by the Ministers of France, Eng-
land and Spain. Thus our exiles on the
continent were deprived for a time of the
pleasure of meeting their hereditary
enemies on the field. But further oppor-
tunities Avere happily to arise for them.

CHAPTER IX,

1727-1741.

Lord Carteret lord-licutenant. — Primate Boulter
ruler of Ireland. — His policy. — Catholic Address. —
Not noticed. — Papists deprwed of elective fran-
chise.— Insolence of the ‘‘Ascendency.” — Famine.
— Emigration — Dorset lord-lieutenant. — Agita-
tion of Dissenters. — Sacramental Test. — Swift’s
virulence against the Dissenters. — Boulter’s policy
to extirpate Papists. — Page against the Catho-
lics.— Debates on money bills. — “ Patriot Party.”
— Duke of Devonshire lord-lieutenant. — Corrup-
tion.-— ^Another famine. — Berkely. — English com-
mercial policy in Ireland.

The accession of George II. occasioned
no great excitement in Ireland. Lord
Carteret Avas continued as lord-lieutenant,
but the corrupt and domineering church-
man, Primate Boulter, a fit instrument of

GO

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the odious minister, Sir Kobert AValpole,
still directed the course of government,
and always to the same end — the depres-
sion and discouragement of the Patriot
party, as the assertors of Irish legisla-
tive independence began to be termed,
the complete establishment of English
sovereignty, and the eternal division
of Irish and English, of Catholic and
Protestant.

The new king had acquired a reputation
for a certain degree of liberality and toler-
ance, as indeed the first George also had be-
fore becoming king of England ; because,
in the electoral dominions in Germany, the
Catholic religion Avas freely tolerated, and
not subjected to the savage penalties and
humiliating oaths Avhich made iliat wor-
ship almost impossible in Ireland. The
Irish Catholics, therefore, Avhcn the young
king mounted the throne, conceiA^ed
certain delusive hopes of a relaxation in
the Penal Code. They Avere still smart-
ing under the lash of the Popery laws,
AA'hich had never yet been so cruelly laid
on as during the reign of George the
First ; but as they remembered that the
tAvo last and severest of these Iuavs A\’ere
said to have been enacted as a punishment
for their neglect in not having addressed
Queen ^Vnue on her coming to the throne,
they Avere now induced to think they
should avoid giving the like offence on the
present auspicious occasion. An humble
congratulatory address Avas therefore pre-
pared, testifying unalterable loyalty and
attachment to the king and to his royal
house ; and it met Avith the kind of recep-
tion Avhich might have been expected. It
Avas presented Avith all due respect to the
lords justices at the Castle of Dublin, by
Lord Delvin ami other persons of the first
quality among them ; but so little notice
Avas then taken either of their address or
themselves, that it is not yet knoAvn
Avhether it Avas ever transmitted to be
laid before his majesty, as it Avas humbly
desired it should be ; or Avhether even an
ansAver AA as returned by their excellencies
that it should be so transmitted.

In other Avords, they and their abject

loyalty” AA'ere Avholly ignored ; and they
received one additional lesson, if they still
needed it, that they AA'ere to consider them-
selves not his majesty’s subjects, but the
“ common enemy.”

They Avere soon to haA'e still another
lesson. Ih’imate Loidter, having ob-
served Avith apprehension that the

Patriot” party Avas popular Avith the
Catholics, and afraid of the result of I
this influence upon the next elections,
took care to haA^e a bill ])repared, Avhich '
was hurried through Parliament, for i

the entire disfranchisement of “ Papists.”
PloAvden and other Avriters affirm that
the disfranchising clause Avas intro-
duced into the bill by a kind of surprise
or deception ; but, hoAvever, that may
be, it passed both Houses and received
the royal assent, enacting that “No
Papist shall be entitled or admitted to
A'ote at the election of any member to
serve in Parliament as a knight, citizen
or burgess ; or at the election of any
magistrate for any city or other toAvn cor-
porate, any hiAvg statute, or usage to the
contrary notAvithstanding.”* The Catho-
llics Avere by this laAv deprived of the very
ast A^estige of civil right, and of the only
poor means they possessed of making a
friend or influencing any public measure.
They remained utterly disfranchised for
sixty-six years ; and during all that period
Avere as completely helpless as the beasts
of the field.

Another transaction of this year may
be considered as a lesson not only to the
Catholics, but to the new king, supposing
that they should dream of recemng some
indulgence, or that he should imagine his
German liberality Avould do for Ireland.
Ill the year 1727 application had been
made by certain Catholics to the late king
for the reversal of some outlawries in-
curred by seA'eral “rebellious,” and Avhich
had been most iniquitously obtained, and
had actually reduced some of the most
ancient, noble, and opulent Roman Catho-
lic families of the kingdom, Avith their
numerous descendants, to absolute beg-
gary. The Commons then sitting, and
justly apprehending from his majestj-’s
supposed equity and (commiseration, that
such application might meet Avith some
success, resolved upon a petition, Avherein,
among other things, they tell his majesty
plainly, and eA^en Avith a kind of menace,
“ that nothing could enable them to defend
his right and title to his croAvn so effectnalhj
j as the enjoyment of those estates, Avhicli
; have been the forfeitures of the rebellious
Irish, and Avere then in the possession of
his Protestant subjects ; aud therefore,
that they Avere fully assured that he Avoukl
discourage all applications or attempts
that sliould be made in favour of such
traitors or their descendants, so dangerous
to the Protestant interest of this kingdom.”
This jAetitiou produced the AA'ished-for
effect. The king, in his ansAver, assured
the Commons “ that he Avould for the
future discourage all such applications
and attempts.”

But the Commons, not content AA'ith
this assurance, and still fearing that those
Popish solicitors, Avho had been employed
* 1 Geo. II., chap. 9, sec. 7.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

G1

by the Catholics in their late unsuccessful
attempt, might prevail upon their clients
to reneAv their application at another more
favourable juncture, brought in a bill
absolutely disqualifying all Koman Catho-
lics from jiractising as solicitors, the only
branch of the law profession Avhich they
were then permitted to practise.

Lord Carteret, in proroguing that Par-
liament, took occasion to congratulate it
upon the several excellent laAvs Avhich it
had passed, amongst others the law “for
refjulation of elections.” At this date, then,
the Catholics of Ireland may be said to
disappear from history. But it Avas im-
possible to extinguish, or to keep doAvn
everywhere and for ever, the Irish race.
An historian, Avho certainly shows no
anxiety to say anything soothing or
flattering of our countrymen, obserA^es
Avell :

“ There Avere indeed Irish Roman
Catholics of great ability, energy, and
ambition : but they Avere to be found
everyAA'here except in Ireland, at Versailles
and at Saint Ildefonso, in the armies of
Frederic and in the armies of Maria
Theresa. One exile became a marshal of
France. Another became prime minister
of Spain.* If he had stayed in his native
land he Avould have been regarded as an
inferior by all the ignorant and AAmrthless
squireens avIio drank the glorious and im-
mortal memory. In his palace at INIadrid
he had the pleasure of being assiduously
courted by the ambassador of George II.
and of bidding defiance in high terms to
the ambassador of George III.”t

Carteret’s administration, apart from
the oppression of the Catholics, or per-
haps, in part, on account of that very op-
pression, is usually praised by English
historians for its Avisdom and humanity.
He certainly promoted some feAv trifling
measures tending to the improvement of
trade ; but nothing touching, or in the
slightest degree trenching upon, the
domain of English monopoly, still less
upon the absolute soA^ereign poAA^ers of the
English Parliament over Ireland and all
things Irish. Tiie primate, in fact, man-
aged both the Irish Parliament and the
Irish elections ; besides taking great pains
to foment quarrels and jealousies betAA'een
Protestants and Protestants, betAveen
English and Irish, and even betAveen the
doAvn-trodden Catholics. There had been
differences of opinion amongst the latter
on the policy of presenting their address
of congratulation and loyalty ; and the
primate Avrites to Lord Carteret Avith
great complacency on the 20th July: “ I
hear this day that the address yesterday
* Wall. t Macaulay’s England.

presented by some Roman Catholics oc-
casions great heats and di\dsions amongst
those of that religion here Avhich he in-
timates may produce a good effect. He
had his agents in all the counties canvass-
ing and intriguing for the king’s friends \
and previous to an election he once Avrites
to assure the lord-lieutenant that “ the
elections Avill generally go Avell.”* In
short, by the disfranchisement of fiA'e-
sixths of the people, by a judicious dis-
tribution of patronage and place amongst
the rest, and by the eA^er-ready resource
of the indefatigable primate, the Parlia-
ment had become perfectly manageable,
and the “ Patriot ” party Avas effectually
kept doAvn. Swift has described the Irish
Parliament at this time as being
“Always firm in its vocation.

For the Court, against the nation.”

So that Lord Carteret’s administration
Avas naturally considered in England as
quite a success.

But the famine that had been so greatly
feared, noAV really visited the country AAuth
great severity, and sleAv its thousands for
tAvo years. No register, nor even ajqiroxi-
mate estimate of the amount of destruc-
tion of human life caused by this famine
Avas made at the time, but in many
counties people fed on Aveeds and garbage.
Ireland Avas then importing corn, and it
is mentioned, as a remarkable fact, that
between tAvo and ihrue hundred thousand
pounds Avorth of grain Avas imported in
one year during the dearth. The famine
returned a feAv years later, in 1711 ; and,
in fact, famine may be said to have be-
come an established institution of the
country and constant or periodical agent
of British government from this time
forth. There noAv began a very consider-
able emigration to America and the ^Yest
Indies, and this emigration Avas almost
exclush'ely of Protestants from the North
of Ireland. Primate Boulter, in one of
his letters, comi)lains of this circumstance,
but takes care, at the same time, to libel
the emigrating Dissenters, alleging that
most of them Avere persons Avho, having
contracted debts they could not or aa'ouIcI
not pay, Avere flying the country to avoid
their creditors. He takes care not to tell
his correspondent in England the true
reasons of this movement : first, decline
of trade and hunger and hardship; next,
the oppression of the Test Act, and of the
“ Schism” Act, a ncAv laAV Avhich had been
very lately extended to Ireland by the
sole authority of the British Parliament.
The migration of Protestant Dissenters
from Ulster, Avhich commenced in Lord
Carteret’s administration, aftcrAvards took
* Bolster’s Correspondence.

62

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

large proportions, and Pennsylvania,
Western Virginia, I\orth Carolina, and
Georgia were in a great measure peopled
by these “ Scotch Irish,” as they are called
in the United States.

Carteret was succeeded by the Duke of
Dorset, in 1731, but the change made no
alteration in the even tenor of the Govern-
ment, seeing that Primate Boulter was
still really and effectively the viceroy of
the country. The Catholics Avere now
giving no trouble— too hapi)y if they
could avoid observation ; but there arose
a most vehement agitation on the part of
the Dissenters. These Presbyterians had
contributed poAverfully to the subjugation
of Ulster under King William ; had fought
at Derry and at XewtOAvnbutler, as Avell
as at the Boyne and Aughrim ; Avere de-
A'oted adherents to the Protestant succes-
sion and the House of Hanover, and had
ahvays aided and applauded the enact-
ment of penal laAvs against the “ common
enemy.” Xoav, Avheu the common enemy
Avas put doAvn under foot, never, it Avas
hoped, to rise again, the Dissenters natu-
rally enough thought the}" should be en-
titled to the priA’ilege of sitting in Parlia-
ment and entering the municipal corpora-
tions Avithout taking the sacrament ac-
cording to the rites of the Church of
England, AAdiich Avas contrary to their
conscience, but Avas imposed on them
by law. They even made a merit of not
liaA'ing made common cause Avith the
Catholics, although joined Avith them
in a common injury on the passage of
the “ Act to preA’ent the further
groAvth of Popery they had preferred to
endure disabilities and insults themselves
rather than in any Avay embarrass the Go-
vernment in its measures against the com-
mon enemy. For this base compliance
they had their reAvard, and remained sub-
ject to the Test Act for three generations
afterAvards.

In their attemihs to obtain a relaxation
of this code during Dorset’s administra-
tion, the Catholics found, of course, the
sternest and most uncompromising op-
ponent in the primate ; but — Avhat they
had not perhaps expected — the most inde-
fatigable, the most efficient, the most
offensive and disdainful enemy they had,
was the Dean of St. Patrick’s. For once
the primate and the dean Avere on the same
side. It does not appear, indeed, that
there A\-as the least chance at that time of
breaking doAvn infaA'our of Dissenters the
strong barriers tliat fenced round the in-
terest of the Established Church on every
side ; but there Avas much discussion by
political pamphlets, and for t\\'0 years
Swift poured forth in very poAverful papers

his horror of Puritans and scorn of Scotch-
men. The most remarkable of these pro-
ductions is that entitled “ Reasons ; humbly
offered to the Parliament of Ireland, for
repealing the Sacramental Test in favour
of the Catholics.” This, like his “Modest
Proposal,” is a master-piece of cold and
biting irony ; intended to shoAv that the
Dissenters could not urge a single plea in
favour of their OAvn emancipation Avhich
the A'ery Papists could not bring forward
Avith still greater force. The Avriter seems
throughout to plead the cause of the Ca-
tholics, “ called by their ill-AA'illers Pap-
ists,” Avith so much earnestness, that very
intelligent Catholic Avriters, as PloAvden,
LaAvless, Curry, and others, hav^e quoted
it as a serious argument on their behalf.
Indeed, it is not Avonderful if straight-
forAvard, unsophisticated minds that un-
derstand no joking on so graA"e a subject,
haA"e been sometimes mystified by passages
like this :

‘ ‘ And Avhereas another author among our
brethren, the Dissenters, has A"ery justly
complained that by this persecuting Test
Act great numbers of true Protestants haA-e
been forced to leaA^e the kingdom and fiy to
the plantations rather than stay here brand-
ed Avith an incapacity for civil and military
employment ; Ave do affirm that the Catho-
lics can bring many more instances of the
same kind ; some thousands of their
religion have been forced by the Sacra-
mental Test to retire into other countries
rather than live here under the incapacity
of Avearing SAVords, sitting in Parliament,
and getting that share of power and profit
Avhich belongs to them asfelloAv-Christians,
Avhereof they are deprived merely upon ac-
count of conscience, AA'hich Avould not
alloAv them to take the sacrament after
the manner prescribed in the liturgy.
Hence it clearly folloAvs, in the words of
the same author, ‘ That if Ave [Catholics]
are incapable of emifioyment, Ave are
punished for our dissent, that is, for our
conscience,’ ” &c.

It gives us a singular idea of the nar-
roAvness of this “ Irish patriot’s ” idea of
patriotism, that he could conceive no more
effectual Avay of casting odium and ridi-
cule on the pretensions of Dissenters,
than by shoAving that even the Papists
themselves might plausibly urge similar
pretensions ; and although he Avas aware
of the effect of these penal laAvs in driving
both Catholics and Dissenters aAvay from
their native land, to carry their energy,
their industry, and their resentments into
foreign countries, he Avas yet earnestly in
faA'our of retaining the Avhole system of
penal laAvs unbroken against them both.
The controA'ersy soon died out, and Avas

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

$3

only occasionally and faintly renewed
during the remainder of the century ; hut
it is impossible to refrain from the ex-
pression of a regret that the sovereign
genius of Swift could not raise him up to
a loftier and more generous idea of patri-
otism for the country of his adoption—
or, as he always called it, of his exile—
than this narrow and intolerant exclusive-
ness, which would drive from their native
land both Catholics and Protestants who
could not take the sacrament as he ad-
ministered it. He opposed English domi-
nation over Ireland, yet equally opposed
the union of Irishmen to resist it. There-
fore the verdict of history must for ever
be, that he was neither an English patriot
nor an Irish one. As was said long after-
wards of O’Connell, “he was a bad subject
and a worse rebel.” Yet the tone of inde-
pendent thought which rings through his
inimitable essays, and the high and manly
spirit with which he shoAved Irishmen hoAv
to confront unjust power, did not pass
away ; they penetrated the character of
the whole English colony, and bore fruit
long after that unquiet and haughty heart
lay at rest in the aisle of St. Patrick’s.
Ubi sceva indujnatio ulterius cor lacerare
nequit.

The disfranchised Catholics being now
deprived of their last and only means of
gaining the favour and indulgence of their
neighbouring magistrates, by promising to
vote for their party (all parties being alike
to the Catholics), Avere made to feel the
full atrocity of the penal laAvs. It seems
really to have been the design of Primate
Boulter to AA^ear doAvn that population by
ill-usage, to force them to fly the country,
to get rid of them somehoAv altogether, so
that tlie island might lie open to be Avholly
peopled by English Protestants.

Boulter Avas by no means the inA^entor
of this policy ; neither AA'as he the last Avho
acted upon it ; but none ever pursued it
with more diabolical malignity. If any
clergyman desired to Avin the primate’s
favour, he fortliAvith preached furious and
foaming sermons against the execrated
Papists. If any pamphleteer desired to
make himself conspicuous as a “ king’s
servant,” and so gain a jtrofitable place,
he set to Avork to proA'e that all Catholics
are by nature and necessity murderers,
perjurers, and adulterers. The resolutions
passed so frequently in both Houses of
Parliament, exhorting magistrates to be
active in enforcing the laAvs against the
common enemy, had sometimes been only
partially effective, because the Catholics
had a way of influencing country gentle-
men to a certain extent. But noAV, under
the primate’s auspices, it Avas not intended

that such resolutions should be a dead
letter.

On the 9th of March, 1731, it Avas “ Ke-
solved unanimously that it is the indis-
pensable duty of all magistrates and
otflcers to put the laAvs made to prevent
the further groAvth of Popery in Ireland
in due execution.” It Avas also at the
same time resolved, nem. con. (being the
end of the session), “ that the members of
that house, in their respective counties and
stations, Avould use their utmost endeaA'-
ours to put the several hiAvs against Popery
in due execution.”

These frequent resolutions of the Com-
mons, aided by inflammatory anniversary
sermons and equally inflammatory pam-
phlets, occasionally jneached and pub-
lished, diffused such a spirit of rancour and
animosity against Catholics, among their
Protestant neighbours, as made the gener-
ality of them believe that the Avords Popery,
rebellion, and massacre really signified the
same thing, and thereby excited such real
terrors in these latter as often brought the
liberties and sometimes the lives of the
former into imminent danger. The most
shocking fables that had been invented
concerning the Irish insurrection in 1G41,
and of the English gunpoAvder treason in
1605, Avere studiously revived and aggra-
vated in these sermons and pamphlets,
Avith a degree of virulence and exaggera-
tion Avhich surpassed the most extravagant
fictions of romance or poetry, and possess-
ed their uninformed, though often AA'ell-
meaning, hearers and readers Avith lasting
and general abhorrence of these people.
The crimes, real or supposed, of Catholics
dead more than a century before, Avere
imputed, intentionally, to all those Avho
survived them, hoAvever innocent, of the
same religious persuasion.

Doctor Curry affirms that by all these
means the popular passion Avas so fiercely
incensed against Papists as to suggest to
some Protestants the project of destroying
them by massacre at once ; and that “ an
ancient nobleman and priAy councillor,”
Avhom the author, hoAvever, does not name,
“in the year 1713, on the threatened in-
\-asion of England by the Erench, under
the command of Marshal Saxe, openly de-
clared in council ‘ that as the Iffipists had
begun the massacre on them, about a
hundred years before, so he thought it
both reasonable and laAvful, on their parts,
to prevent them, at that dangerous
juncture, by first falling upon them.’ ”

The same resjAectable author, Avho Avas a
contempory of the events he relates, states
that “ so entirely AA'ere some of the loAver
northern Dissenters possessed and influenc-
ed by this prevailingprepossessionand ran-

<54

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

cmir against Catholics, that in the same
year, and for the same declared imrpose of
prevention, a conspiracy was actually
formed by some of the inhabitants of Lnr-
gan to rise in the night-time and destroy
all their neighbours of that denomination
in their beds. But this inhuman purpose
was also frustrated by an information of
the honest Protestant publican in whose
house the conspirators had met to settle
the execution of their scheme, sworn
before the Bev. ]\Ir Ford, a justice of the
peace in that district, who received it with
horror, and with difficulty put a sto^) to
the intended massacre.”*

The Irish House of Commons, during
Lord Dorset’s administration, was chiefly
occupied by debates on money and
flnances. The latter years of Carteret’s
term had been much disquieted on ac-
count of an attempt, made by the king’s
servants, to get a vote of -£274,000 to the
crown. The country party resisted vigor-
ously ; and then began a series of
acrimonious debates on monetary affairs,
w iiich “ the Patriots ” treated with a
view to assert, as often and as strongly as
possible, the right of the Irish Legislature
to control at least the matter of Irish
flnances. In this first session, held in the
Duke of Dorset’s government, thequestion
came up again under another form on the
vote for the supplies. The national debt,
on Lady Day, 1733, w'as £371,312 13s.
2d., t and for the payment of the prin-
cipal and interest the supplies were voted
from session to session. A gross attempt
was now made to grant the supplies, set
aside to pay the debt and the interest, to
the king and his successors forever.

This proposition Avas violently resisted
by the Patriots, Avho asserted that it Avas
unconstitutional to vote the sum for a
longer period than from session to session.
The Government, defeated in this attempt,
sought to grant it for tAventy-one years,
and a Avarm debate ensued. Just as the
diA'ision Avas about taking place, the
Ministerialists and Patriots being nearly
equal. Colonel Tottenham, an Opposi-
tionist, entered. He Avas dressed in boots,
contrary to the etiquette of the House,
Avhich prescribed full dress. His vote
gave the majority to the Patriots, and the
Government Avas defeated by Tottenham
in his boots. This became one of the
toasts of patriotism, and Avas giA^en in all
the social meetings.

But such triumphs of the country party
Avere rare, and their effects Avere j)re-
carious. pA'cry such event as this, Iioav-
ever, stimulated and ke^jt alive the aspira-

* Curry’s Historical Review,
t I’lowden.

tion after independent nationality : and
the same Duke of Dorset, Avhen he Avas in
Ireland as viceroy for the second time,
had an opportunity to A^erify and measure
the progress of that national spirit.

In 1737 Dorset Avas recalled, and Avas
succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire, a
nobleman of great Avealth, avIio kept a
splendid court in Dublin, and by the ex-
penditures thereby occasioned made him-
self extremely popular amongst the
tradesmen of that city.* In fact, the
English Government and its crafty chief.
Sir Bobert Walpole, saAv the necessity of
counteracting the perilous doctrines of
the “ Patriots,” by all the arts of seduc-
tion, by the charm of personal poimlarity,
and especially by corruption — an art
Avhich, under Sir Bobert Walpole, reached,
both in England and in Ireland, a degree
of high development, Avhich it had never
before attained in any country. As it Avas
that minister’s avoAved maxim that “every
man has his price,” he saAV no reason to
except Irish patriots from that general
laAV ; and Primate Boulter Avas precisely
the man to test its accuracy in practice.
All the influence of the Government Avas
noAv needed to overcome the resolute
bearing of the Opposition iipon the grand
subject of “ supplies.” The Patriots Avere
determined, if the Irish Parliament Avas
to be politically subordinate to that of
England, that they AA’ould at least en
deavour to maintain its privilege of A^oting
its OAvn money. It is in these debates Ave
first find amongst the Patriot party the
names of Sir EdAvard O’Brien, of Clare,
and his son. Sir Lucius O’Brien, an
illustrious name then, both at home and
abroad, destined to be more illustrious
still before the close of that century, and
to shine Avith a j’et i)urer fame in the
present age. Henry Boyle, Speaker of
the House of Commons, and aftenvards
Earl of Shannon, and Antony IMalone,
son of that Malone Avho had pleaded along
Avith Sir Toby Butler against the penal
laAvs of Queen Anne’s time, Avere also
leading members of the Opposition.

In i741 there Avas another dreadful
famine. It is irksome to record, or to
read the details of this chronic misery ;
but in the History of Ireland the gaunt
spectre of Famine must be a prominent
figure of the picture, Avhile English con-
nection continues. The learned and
amiable Dr. George Berkeley Avas then
Bishop of Cloyne. A season of starvation
first, and then, in due rotation, a season
of pestilence, thinned the people miser-
ably ; and the good bishop’s sympathies

* He also built Devonshire Quay, at his own ex-
pense, and presented it to the city.

niSTORY OF IRELAND.

G5

were strongly movetl. In a letter to Mr
Thomas Trior, of Dublin, he writes thus,
under date the 19th May, 1741:— “The
distresses of the sick and poor are end-
less. The havoc of mankind in the
counties of Cork, Limerick, and some
adjacent places, hath been incredible.
The nation, probably, will not recover
this loss in a century. The other day I
heard one from the county of Limerick
say that whole villages Avere entirely dis-
peopled. About two months since I heard
Sir Jiichard Cox say that five hundred
were dead in the parish, though in a
county, I believe, not very populous. It
Avere to be Avished people of condition Avere
at their seats in the country during these
calamitous times, Avhich might provide
relief and employment for the poor.
Certainly, if these perish, the rich must be
sufferers in the end.”

It was Avhile under the impression of
these terrilfie scenes of suffering that
Terkeley Avrote his celebrated pamphlet,
entitled “ The Querist,” AA'hich sets forth,
under the form of questions, Avithout
ansAvers, the bishop’s vieAvs of the evils
and requirments of his country ; for
Terkeley, unlike SAAuft, called himself an
Irishman. Taa'o or three of iiis queries
Avill shoAv the drift of the Avork.

•AVhether a great quantity of sheepAvalk
be not ruinous to a country, rendering it
Avaste and thinly inhabited ?” “ Whetlier

it be a crime to inquire hoAv far Ave may
do AAUthout foreign trade, and Avhat Avould
folloAv on such a supposition?” “Whether,
if there Avere a Avail of brass a thousand
cubits high round this kingdom, our
natives might not, nevertheless, live
cleanly and comfortably, till the
land, and reap the fruits of it?”

Such queries as these, though very
cautiously expressed, shoAved plainly
enough that the excellentbishop attributed
ail the evils of Ireland to the greedy com-
mercial policy of England ; and accord-
ingly, this pamphlet A\'as quite enough to
stop his promotion. The next year there
Avas a vacancy for the primacy ; and as
Lcrkeley Avas the most learned and
famous man in the Irish Church (Swift
being then in his sad dotage), the friends
of the Bishop of Cloyne naturally thought
Jiirn entitled to the place, especially since
Sir Robert Walpole OAved him some com-
pensation for having broken faith Avith
him in the matter of his Bermuda mission-
ary college. But Berkeley himself ex-
])ected no such favours. He writes to Mr
Trior with a touching simplicity : “ Tor
myself, though his excellency the lord-
lieutenant might liaA-e a better opinion of !
me than I deserved, yet it Avas not likely !

E

that he Avould make an Irishman primate.”
And assuredhg Berkeley Avas not the kino
of man needed to “ do the king’s business ’
in Ireland, Dr Iloadley Avas the person
appointed, and Avas soon succeeded by the
notorious George Stone.

It Avould require a large volume to
detail the numberless and minutely
elaborated measures by which the English
Government lias at all times contrived to
regulate the trade and industry of Ire-
land in all their parts Avith a vicAv to her
OAvn profit ; a system Avhereby periodical
famines are insured in an island endoAved
by nature Avith such boundless capaeitv
for Avealth. We haA'e seen that both
SAAuft and Berkeley attacked the extensive
“ sheep -Avalks.” In those years, corn Avas
brought from England to Ireland because
it suited the interest of England then to
discourage agriculture here, and to en-
courage sheep-farms, all her efforts being
directed to secure the Avoollen trade to
herself. Accordingly it Avas forbidden the.
Irish to export black cattle to England,
and, therefore, sheep became the more pro-
fitable stock ; but as the Irish could make
nothing of the avooI, they b.ad to send it in
the fieece, and thus Yorkshire Avas supplied
Avith the raAv material of its staple manu-
facture. But afterAvards, Avhen England
had full possession of the avooHoi
manufacture, and that of Ireland
Avas utterly destroyed, it became ap,-
parent to the English, that the best use
they could make of Ireland avouUI be to
turn it into a general store farm for
agricultural produce of all kinds. Ander-
son (History of Commerce) explains the
matter thus : “ Concerning these laws,
many think them hurtful, and that it
Avould be Aviser to suffer the Irish to be
employed in breeding and fattening theii
black cattle for us, than to turn their
lands into sheepAvalks as at present; in
consequence of Avhich, in spite of all the
hiAvs, they supply foreign nations Avith
their avooI.”

It is observable that this English
Avriter, Avhen he says many think the lavv s
regulating Irish commerce “ hurtful,”
means hurtful to the English. There-
fore, the system Avas afterAvards so far
changed, that England Avas Avilling to
take any kind of agricultural prodm e
from us, and to give us, in returm
manufactured articles made either of our
own or of foreign materials. So it has
happened that Irishmen have been per-
mitted ever since to soaa^, to reap, and to
feed cattle /or them, as Anderson recom-
mended. But Avhich of the systems bred
more Irish famines we shall have otb.er
and too many opportunities of inquiring.

GG

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

CHAPTER X.

1741-174-5.

■\Var on the Continent. — Dr. Lucas. — Primate Stone.

— Battle of Dettingeu. — Lally. — Fontenoj*. — The

Irish Brigade.

King George II., like his predecessor,
felt much more personal interest in
German politics and the “ balance of
power” on the Continent, than in anj
domestic affairs of the English nation.
He had adhered to the Pragmatic sanc-
tion,” that favourite measure of the
Austrian Emperor Charles VI., for se-
curing the succession of the possessions
of the House of Austria to the Arch-
duchess Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary.
On the 20th of October. 1710, the Emperor
Charles died, and all Europe was almost
immediately plunged into general Avar.
King Erederick, stA'led the Great, was
then king of Prussia ; and as the Austrian
army and finances Avere then in great dis-
order, and he could expect no very serious
opposition, he suddenly set up his claim
to the xVustrian duchy of Silesia, and
marched an army into it, in pursuance of
that usual policy of Prussia, Avhich
elaborately^' prepares and carefully conceals
plans of aggression until the moment
of putting them in execution, and then
makes the stealthy spring of a tiger.
Prance embraced the cause of the Elector
of Bavaria and candidate for the imperial
throne ; sent an army into Germany under
jMarshal Broglie, and after some successes
over the Austrians, caused the elector to
be proclaimed emperor at Prague. In
April, 1741, King George II., delivered a
speech to both Houses of his Parliament,
informing them that the Queen of Hun-
gary had made a requisition for the aid of
England in asserting her title to the
throne, pursuant to the Pragmatic sanc-
tion ; and thereupon he demanded Avar
supplies. Some honest and uncorrupted
members of Parliament protested against
this neAV Continental Avar ; but Sir Robert
V'alpole still ruled the country with
almost absolute SAvay ; and to hold his
])lace lie supported the jiolicy of the king.
So liegan that long and bloody AA'ar : a i
war in Avhicli Ireland had no concern,
save in so far as it Avas an occasion for
larger exactions from the Irish Parlia-
ment; and also gave to her exiled sons
some further (qiportunities of meeting
their enemies in battle.

It Avas in 1741 that the famous Dr.
Lucas first appeared in the political arena.
He Avas a man of great energy and

honesty ; fully imbued Avith the opinion.s-
of SAvift on the rights and Avrongs of his
country, that is of the English colony.
He AA-as e\'en more offensively intolerant
than SAvift tOAvards the Catholics ; but
AA-ithin the sacred limits of the “Pro-
testant interest ” he supported the prin-
ciples of freedom ; and if he fell very far
short of his great model in genius, he per-
haps equalled him in courage, Charles
Lucas Avas born in 1713, and his family
AA’as of the farming class in Clare county.
He established himself as an apothecary
in Dublin, Avhere he Avas elected a member
of the Common Council. He there found
abuses to correct. The appointment of
aldermen had been a privilege usurped by
the board of aldermen, Avhile the right
appertained to the AA'hole corporate body.
HaAung agitated this subject for a Avhile,
he greAv bolder Avith his increasing popu-
larity, and published some political tracts
on the soA'ereign right of the Irish Parlia-
ment. This attracted attention and ex-
cited alarm ; for, “ to make any man
popular in Ireland,” as the primate
bitterly remarks, “it is only necessary to
set up the Irish against the English in-
terest.” Henceforward Dr. Lucas pui'-
sued, in his OAvn Avay, an active career of
patriotism, as he understood patriotism :
and the reader AAill hear of him again.

In 1742 the primacy of the Irish Church
being A'acant, by the Death of Dr. Boulter,
Hoadley Avas the first appointed to the See
of Armagh, but Avas soon after succeeded
by that extraordinary prelate, George
Stone, bishoj) of Derry. It had long been
Sir Robert Walpole's policy to govern
Ireland mainly through the chief of the
Ii'isli Established Church, and Stone Avas
a man altogether after his oaaui heart. He
AA-as English by birth, and the son of a
keeper of a jail ; AA'as never remarkable for
learning, and his character Avas the AA'orst
possible ; but he had qualities AA-hich. in the
minister’s judgment, peculiarly fitted him
to hold that AA-ealthy and poAverful see —
that is to say, he Avould scruple at no
corruption, Avould revolt at no infamy, to
gain adherents “for the court against the
nation ;” and Avould make it the single
aim of his life to maintain the English
interest in Ireland ; and this not only by
careful distribution of the immense patron-
age of Government, but by still baser acts
of seduction. IMemoirs and satires of that
time have made but too notorious the
mysteries of his house near Dublin. Avhere
Avinein profusion and bevies of beautifiul
harlots baited the trap to catch the light
youth of the metropolis. Primate Stone
Avas a very handsome man, of A'ery dignified
presence and demeanour and AA'ith such a

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

G7

man for lord -justice and privy councillor,
the Duke of Dorset was able to prevent
any dangerous assertion of independence
during his viceroyalty. There Avere,
howeA^er, continual debates over the ques-
tion of supplies, the rapidly increased ex-
penses of the public establishments, and
the notorious corruption practised by
GoA'ernment.

So long as the common interest of the
Protestants AA'as kept secure against the
mass of the people, all Avas Avell ; but dur-
ing the Devonshire administration alarm
Avas taken about that A'ital point, on ac-
count of a bill to re Averse an attainder
Avhich Lord Clancarty had succeeded in
liaAing presented to the Irish Parliament
during the preceding viceroyalty, and
which there seemed to be some danger
might be passed. The Clancarty estate,
Avhich Avould have been restored by this
attainder, Avas valued at -t'GO.OOO per
annum ; and it Avas then in the hands of
many new proprietors Avho had purchassed
under the confiscation titles, and aa'Iio iioav,
of course, besieged and threatened Parlia-
ment Avith their claims and outcries. It
Avas also found that other persons, Avhose
lands had been confiscated (unjustly, as
they said they Avere ready to prove), had
instituted proceedings for the recov^ery
of certain pieces of land or houses. In
short, there Av^ere eighty-seA'en suits com-
menced ; and the House felt that it Avas
time to set at least that affair at rest. If
Papists Avere to be alloAved to disquiet
Protestant possessors by alleging injustice
and illegality in the proceedings by A\diicli
they liad been despoiled, it A\-as clearly
perceived that there Avould be an end of
the Protestant interest, Avhich, in fact,
reposed upon injustice and illegality from
the beginning. Therefore, a series of very
violent resolutions Avas passed by the
Commons, denouncing all these proceed-
ings as a disturbance of the public Aveal, and
declaring all those Avho instituted any such
suits, or acted in them as laAvyer or
attorney, to be public enemies. It may
be remembered that not only Avere Catho-
lic barristers debarred from practice,
but, by a late act. Catholic solicitors
too ; so that after these resolutions
there could not be much chance of
success in any laAvsuit for a Catholic.
Thus the Protestant interest Avas quieted
for that time.

Meanwhile, Avar Avas raging OA'er the
Continent, and King George If., Avith his
son, the Duke of Cumberland, had gone
over to take command of the British and
Hanoverian troops, operating on the
Prench frontier, Avdiile Central Germany
was fiercely debated betAvcen the Empress

Queen, allied Avith England, and Frederick
of Prussia, allied AAffth France. The first
considerable battle after the king took
command Avas at Dettingen, the 27th of
June, 1743. This place is on the Mein or
Mayn river, and very near the city of
Frankfort. The French Avere commanded
by the Marechal de Noailles ; the allies by
King George ostensibly, but really by the
Earl of Stair. The day Avent against the
French, and ended in almost a rout of
their army, Avhich Avould have become a
total rout but for the exertions of the
Count de Daily, then acting as aide-major-
general to Xoailles. The marechal him-
self gives him this very high testimony :
“ He three several times rallied the army in
its rout, and saA^ed it in its retreat by his
adAuce giA'en to the council of Avar after
the action.”* As this celebrated soldier
Avill reappear in the narratiA'e, and espe-
cially on one far greater and more terrible
day, it may be Avell to give some account
of him. His father Avas Sir Gerard Dally
(properly O’Mullally), of Tullindal ; and
had been one of the defenders of Limerick,
and one of those Avho volunteered for
France Avith Sarsfield. Sir Gerard be-
came immediately an officer in the French
service, and his son, the Count Dally, Avas
born at Komans, in Dauphine, Avhen his
father Avas there in garrison. He first
mounted a trench at the siege of Bare dona,
in Spain, Avhen he Avas tAveh'e years of age,
but already a captain in Dillon’s regiment.
This Avas in 1714. We next hear of him
planning a neAV descent upon some poin;:
of England or Scotland, in order to retrieve
the fortunes of “ the Pretender,” and had
actually a commission for this purpose
from King James III. To conceal his
plans, he announced that he Avas pre-
paring to make a campaign as volunteer
under his near relative Marechal de Dascy
(De Lacy), Avho then commanded the
Russian army against the Turks. Cardinal
Fleury induced him to lay aside CA’ery
other design and to go to linssia, not in a
military but in a civil capacity ; in short,
as a diplomatist Avith special mission. As
this mission AA'as to endeavour to detach
Russia from English alliance, and so
AA'eaken England in the Avar, he gladly ac-
cepted, for the great object of Daily’s life,
to the A'ery last, Avas to strike a mortal
bloAv at England in any part of the earth
or sea. He did not succeed in his Russian
embassy, and left St. Petersburg in a fit
of impatience, for AA'hich the cardinal re-
buked him ; then served under Xoaillcs in
the Ketherlands, avIio particularly re-
quested him to act as the chief of his staff.

* Letter of lUarechal de Noailles, quoted iu Bio^.
Uiiiv., art., Lully.

68

HISTORY OF IRELA^'D.

It is thus we find him at the disastrous
battle of Dettingeii ; but for the repulse
that day both Lally and the French were
soon to have a choice revenge. After the
battle, a regiment of Irish infantry was
created for him, and attached to the Irish
brigade. The brigade consisted now of
seven regiments, and it saw much service
that year and the next under the Count de
Saxe, who took the various towns of
Menin, Ypres, and Fumes, in the Nether-
lands, all which the Duke of Cumberland
endeavoured to prevent without avail,
and without coming to a battle.

In this year, 1744, however, great pre-
paration was made on both sides for a de-
cisive campaign. The French army was
increased in the Netherlands, and on the
other side the English court had at length
prevailed on the States-General of Hol-
land to join the alliance against France.
In September of that year, the allies, then
in camp at Spire, were reinforced b}’^
20,000 Dutch, who were in time enough, un-
luckily for them, to take a share in the
great and crowning battle of Fontenoy,

It might be supposed that the incidents
of this famous battle have been sutliciently
discussed and described to make them
generally known ; but in fact, the plain
truth of that affair (especially as it affects
the Irish engaged) is very difficult to
ascertain with precision, and for the very
reason that there are so many accounts of
it handed down to us by French, Irish, and
English authorities, all with different
national prejudices and predilections.
Heading the usual English accounts of the
battle, one is surprised to find in general
no mention of Irishmen having been at
Fontenoy at all ; the English naturally
dislike to acknowledge that they owed
that mortal disaster in great part to the
Irish exiles whom the faithlessness and
oppression of their own Government had
driven from their homes and filled with
the most intense passion of vengeance :
the French, with a sentiment of national
pride equally natural, Avish to appropriate
to French soldiers, as far as possible, the
honour of one of their proudest victories ;
but if we read certain enthusiastic Irish
narratives of Fontenoy, Ave might be led
to suppose that it Avas the Irish brigade
alone Avhich saved the French army,
and ruined the redoubtable column of
English and Hanoverians. It is Avell,
tlien, to endeavour to establish the simple
facts by reference to such authorities as
are beyond suspicion.

In the end of April, 1745, the 7darechal
de Saxe, uoav famous for his successful
sieges in the Netherlands, opened trenches
before Tournay, on the Sciieidt riA^er,

Avhich, in this place, runs nearly from
south to north. King Louis, Avith the
young dauphin, “ not to speak of mistresses,
play-actors, and cookery-apparatus (in
Avaggons innumerable) hastens to be there,”
says Carlyle.* Tourna}' Avas A*ery strongly
fortified, and defended by a Dutch garri-
son of nine thousand men, and Saxe ap-
peared before it Avith an army of about
seventy thousand men. The allies de-
termined at all hazards to raise the siege,
and King George’s son, the Duke of Cum-
berland, hastened over from England to
take command of the allied forces — Eng-
lish, Dutch, Hanoverian, and Austrian —
destined for that service. Count Konig-
seck commanded the Austrian quota,
and the Prince of Waldeck the Dutch.
The army aa\us mustered near Brussels on
the 4th of May, and thence set forth, sixty
thousand strong, for Tournay, passing
near the field of Steinkirk — a name re-
membered in the English army. On
Sunday, the 9th of May Qnew style), the
Duke reached the village of Vazon, six
or seAxn miles from Tournay, in a Ioav, un-
dulating country, Avith some Avood and a
few streams and peaceable A'illages. The
ground aaLIcIi Avas to be the field of
battle lies all betAveen the Brussels road
and the river Scheldt. Tournay lay to the
north-Avest, closely beleagured by the
French, and the Marechal de Saxe, aAvare
of the approach of the allies, had throAvn
up some Avorks, to bar their line of ad-
vance, Avith strong batteries in the villages
of Antoine and Fontenoy, and on the edge
of a small Avood, called Bois de Ban-i,
Avhich spreads out tOAvards the east, but
narroAvs nearly to a point in the direction
of Tourney. In these Avorks, connected
by redans and abatis, and mounted Avith
probably a hundred guns, the IMarechal
took his position AA'ith fifty-five thousand
men, leaving part of his force around
Tournav' and in neighbouring garrisons.
Near the point of the Avood is a redoubt
called ‘‘redoubt of Eu,” so called from the
title of the Norman reigment Avhich oc-
cupied it that day. On a hill a little far-
ther within the French lines the king and
the dauphin took their post.

And UOAV Saxe only feared that tlie allies
might not venture to assail him in so
strong a place ; and the old Austrian,
Kunigseck, Avas strongly of opinion that
the attempt ought not to be made ; but
the Duke of Cumberland and Avaldeck,
the Dutch commander, Averc of a different

* Life of Frederick. !Mr. Carlyle, avIio devo'es
many pages to a minute account of the battle of
Fontenoy, does not seem to have been made awai-e,
in tlie course of his reading, of the presence of any
Irish troops at all on that lield.

IIISTOllY OF IRELAND.

60

opinion, and, in short, it was determined
to go in. Early in the morning of the 11th
the dispositions were made. The Dutch
and Austrians were on the enemy’s left,
opposite the French right, and destined to
carry St. Antoine and its Avorks : the
English and Hanoverians in the centre,
with their infantry in front and cavaliy
in the rear, close hy the Avood of Barri.
The map contained in the Memoirs of
Marechal Saxe” gives the disposition of
the various corps on the Erench side ; and
we there find the place of the Irish brigade
marked on the left of the Erench line, but
not the extreme left, and nearly opposite
the salient point of the AA'ood of Barri. The
brigade Avas not at its full strength; and
Ave knoAA^ not on what authority Mr. Davis*
states that all the the scA'en regiments were
on the ground. There Avere probably four
regiments; certainly three — Clare’s, Dil-
lon’s, and Tally’s — Lord Clare being in
chief command. Neither Clare, nor Dil-
lon, nor Tally Avere Irish by birth, but all
Avere sons of Timerick exiles. Of their
troops ranked that day under the green
flag, probably not one had fought at Lim-
erick fifty-four 3'cars before. They Avere
either the sons of the original Wild-
geese,” or Irishmen Avho had migrated
since, to fly from the degradation of the
penal laAvs, and sepk revenge upon tl.elr
country’s enemies. J udging from the space
Avhich the brigade is made to occupy on
the map, it appears likely that its effective
force at Eontenoy did not exceed five
thousand men, or the tenth part of the
Erench army.

The various attacks ordered by the
Duke of Cumberland on the several parts
of the Erench line Avere made in due form,
after some preliminary cannonading. None
of them succeeded. The Dutch and
Austrians Avere to have stormed St. An-
toine, their right Aving at the same time
joining hands Avith the English and Han-
overians opposite Eontenoy. But they
found the Are from Antoine too heaA\v,
and, besides, a battery they Avere not aAvare
of opened upon them from the opposite
bank of the Scheldt, and cut tlieni up so
effectually that, after two gallant assaults,
they Avere fain to retire to their original
position. Of course, the English have
complained ever since that it Avas the
Dutch and Austrians Avho lost them Eon-
tenoy. In the meantime the English and
Hanoverians A\mre furiously attacking the
Aullage of Eontenoy itself, but had no
better success. Before the attack a certain
Brigadier-General Ingoldsby had been de-
tached Avith a Highland Eegiment, '‘Sem-
ple’s Highlanders,” and some other force,

* Note to his splendid ballad of “ Fontenoy.” <

to silence the redoubt of Eu, on the edge
of the Avood, Avhich seriously incommoded
the English right. Ingoldsby trieil, Imt
could not do it (on AAdiich account he under-
AAmnt a court-martial in England after-
Avards). So the duke had to make his
attack on Eontenoy Avith the guns of that
redoubt hammering his right flank. The
attack Avas made, hoAvever, and made Avith
gallantry and persistency, three times, but
completely repulsed each time with con-
siderable loss. Nothing but repulse every-
Avhere — right, left and centre. But now
the Duke of Cumberland perceived that
betAA'een Eontenoy and the Avood of Barri,
Avith its redoubt of Eu,. there Avas a pass-
age practicable, though Avith great jAeril
and loss from the crossfire. “ Sire,” said
Saxe to the king oa the evening of that
triumphant day, I have one fault to
reproach myself Avith— I ought to have put
one more redoubt betAveen the Avood and
Eontenoy; but I thought there Avas no
general bold enough to hazard a passage
in that place.” * In fact, no general ought
to have done so. However, as Carlyle de-
scribes this advance, '‘His Boyal Highness
blazes into resplendent P/cfiTDeafscA rage,
Avhat Ave may call spiritual Avdiite heat, a
man sans peur at any rate, and pretty much
sails avis — decides that he must and Avill
be through those lines, if it please God ;
that he Avill not be repulsed at his part of
the attack — not he. for one ; but Avill
plunge through by a\ luit gap there is (nine
hundred yards, ATltaire measures it), be-
tAveen Eentenoy and that redoubt, Avith
its laggard Ingoldsby, and see Avhat the
Erench interior is like.” f In fact, he did
come through the lines and saAV the inte-
rior.

He retired for a space, re-arranged his
English and Hanoverians in three thin
columns, Avhich, in the advance, under
heavy fire from both sides, Avere gradually
croAvded into one column of great depth,
full sixteen thousand strong. | They had
Avith them tAvelve field-pieces — six in front
and six in the middle of their lines. § The
column had to passthrough a kind of hol-
loAV, Avhere they Avere someAvhat sheltered
from the fire on each flank, dragging their
cannon by hand, and then mounted a rising
ground and found themselves nearly out
of direct range from the guns both of Eon-

* A'oltaire. Louis XV". Ills accoixnt of the battle
is in {?enei-al very clear and precise; but Voltaire,
both ill this work and in bis poem of Fontenoy,
though he cannot alto.iiether avoid all mention of the
Irish troops, takes care to say as little about them as
possible.

t Life of Frederick.

t Davis, both in his ballad and his note on this
battle, by some unaccountable oversight, states it
at six ihousand.

§ Voltaire.

70

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

tenoy and the redoubt of Eu — fairly in
sight of the French position. In front of
them, as it chanced, were four battalions
of the Gardes Francaises, with tAvo bat-
talions of SAviss guards on their left, and
tAA'o other French regiments on their right.
The French officers seem to haA’e been
greatly surprised Avhen they suaa^ the
English battery of cannon taking position
on the summit of the rising ground.
“ English cannon !” they cried ; “ let us go
and take them.” They mounted the hill
Avith their grenadiers, but A\'ere astonished
to find an army in their front. A heaA’y
discharge, both of artillery and musketry,
made them quickly recoil Avith heavy loss.
The English column continued to advance
steadily, and the French guards, AAith the
regiment of Courten, supported by other
troops, having re-formed, came up to meet
them. It is at this point that the cere-
monious salutes are said to have passed
betAA'een Lord Charles Hay, Avho com-
manded the advance of the English, and
the Count d’Auteroche, an officer of the
French Grenadiers — the former taking off
his hat and politely requesting Messieurs
of the French Guards to fire — the latter
also, Avith hat off, rei)lying, “ After you,
IMessieurs.” D’Espagnac and Voltaire
both record this piece of stage-courtesy.
But Carlyle, though he says it is a pity,
disturbs the course of history by means of
“ a small irrefragable document AAdiich has
come to him,” namely, an original letter
from Lord llay to his brother, of Avhich
this is an excerpt : “ It Avas our regiment
that attacked the French Guards ; and
AA'hen Ave came Avithin tAventy or thirty
paces of them I advanced before our regi-
ment, drank to them (to the Fremdi),
and told them, that Ave Avere the Eng-
lish Guards, and hojted they Avould stand
till AA'e came quite up to them, and not
to sAA’ini the Scheldt, as they did the Mayn
at Dettingen; upon AA’hich I immedi-
ately turned about to our OAvn regiment,
speeched them and made them huzzah.
An officer (d’Auteroche) came out of the
ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah.
IIoAA'ever, there Avas not above three or
four in their l)rigade did,” &c. In fact, it
appears that the French, Avho, according to
that chivalrous legend, “never fired first,”
did fire first on this occasion ; but both
Gardes Francaises and SAviss Guards AA'ere
driven off the field AA'ith considerable
slaughter. And still the English column
advanced, AA'ith a terrible steadiness, pour-
ing forth a tremendous fire of musketry
and artillery, suffering greviously by re-
j)eated attacks, both in front and flank,
but still closing up its gapped ranks, and
shoAV'ing a resolute face on both sides.

There Avas some confusion in the French
army, OAving to the surprise at this most
audacious adA'ance, and the resistance at
first AA’as unconcerted and desultory.
Regiment after regiment, both foot and
horse, Avas hurled against the redoubta-
ble column, but all Avere repulsed by
an admirably sustained fire, Avhich the
French called /e« d'enfer. Voltaire states
that among the forces AS'liich made these
ineffectual attacks AA’ere certain Irish
battalions, and that it Avas in this charge
that the Colonel Count Dillon Avas killed.
And still the formidable column steadily
and sloAvly advanced, calmly loading and
firing, “ as if on parade,” says Voltaire,
and AA'ere now full three hundred paces
beyond the line of fire from Fontenoy and
the redoubt of the AA'ood, resolutely
marching on toAvards the French head-
quarters. By this time Count Saxe found
that his batteries at Fontenoy had used
all their balls, and AA'ere only ansAvering the
guns of the enemy Avith discharges of
poAvder. He believed the battle to be lost,
and sent tAvo several times to entreat the
king to cross the Scheldt, and get out of
danger, AA'hich the king, hoAvever, steadily
refused to do.

Military critics haA'e said that at this
crisis of the battle, if the English had
been supported by cavalry, and due force
of artillery, to complete the disorder of
the French — or, if the Dutch, under
Waldeck, had at that moment resolutely
repeated their assault upon St. Antoine,
the A'ictory Avas to the Duke of Cumber-
land, and the Avhole French army must
have been flung into the Scheldt river.
Count Saxe As-as noAv in mortal anxiety, and
thought the battle really lost, AA'hen the
Duke de Richelieu rode up at a full gallop
and suggested a plan, Avhich A\'as happily
adopted. It Avas the thought of that same
Colonel Count de Lally, avIio has been
heard of before at Dettingen.* In fact,
this famous plan does not ap]>ear to have
required any peculiar strategic genius to
conceh'e, for it AA'as neither more nor less
than to open Avith a battery of cannon
right in front of the advancing column,
and then attack it simultaneously Avith
all the reserves, including the King’s
household cavalry, and the Irish brigade,
Avhich still stood motionless near the
Avestern point of the AA'ood of Barri, and
noAv abreast of the English column on
its right flank. There Avas also in the
same quarter the French regiment of

* “ It is said the Jacobite Irishman, Count Lally,
of the Irish bri".ade, was prime author of this
notion. — ” — Carlyle. Frederick. This is the only
indication in all Carlyle's laboured account of the
battle that he Avas aware even of the presence of
one Irislnnan.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

71

Normandie, and several other corps which
had already been repulsed and broken in
several ineffectual assaults on the im-
pregnable column.* A French authority f
informs us that “ this last decisive charge
Avas determined upon, in the very crisis of
the day, in a conversation, rapid and sharp
as lightning, between Richelieu, galloping
from rank to rank, and Rally, who was
out of patience at the thought that the
devoted ardour of the Irish brigade was not
to be made use of.” He had his wish, and
at the moment when the battery opened
■on the front of the column, the brigade
had orders to assail its right flank, and to
go in Avith the bayonet.

The English mass Avas now stationary,
but still unshaken, and never doubting to
finish the business, but looking Avistfully
back for the cavalry, and longing for the
Dutch. Suddenly four guns opened at
short range straight into the head of their
column ; and at the same moment the Irish
regiments plunged into their right flank
with bayonets levelled and a hoarse roar
that rose abo\'e all the din of battle. The
Avords Avere in an unknown tongue ; but if
the English had understood it, they Avould
liaAm known that it meant “ Remember
Limerick !” That fierce charge broke the
steady ranks, and made the vast column
Avaver and reel. It Avas seconded by the
regiment of Normaildie Avith equal gjillan-
try, Avhile on the other flank the cavalry
burst in impetuously, and the four guns
in front Avere ploughing long lanes through
the dense ranks. It Avas too much. The
English resisted for a little Avith stubborn
bravery, but at length tumbled into utter
confusion and fled from the field, leaving
it covered thickly Avith their OAvn dead and
their enemies. They Avere not pursued far,
for, once outside of the lines, their cavalry
Avas enabled to cover their retreat. The
allies lost nine thousand men, including
tAvo thousand prisoners, and the Frencli
five thousand. So the battle of Fontenoy
Avas fought and Avon.^

It cost the Irish brigade dear. The gal-

* The Alarquis D’Argeiison, minister of Foreign
Affairs, \vas present in the battle, and immediately
■after wrote a narrative of it. which he addressed to
M. (le \ oltaire, then “ Historiographer to the King.”
He says: “'A false corps de reserve Avas then brought
tip ; it consisted of the same cavalry .Avbich had at
first charged ineffectually, the household troops of
the king, the carbineers of the French guards, who
lia-d not yet been engaged, and a body of Iiisli
troops, which were excellent, especially when op-
posed to the English and Hanoverians.” ^

t Hiog. Univ. Lally.

J M. de A oltaire, though he gives a long account
of this battle, and cannot avoid naming a least the
Irish brigade, has not one Avord of praise for it
This is the more notable, as he had D’Argenson's
Memoir before him, Avho speaks of them as proving
themselves excellent troops, espedalli/ against the

lant Dillon Avas killed. Avith oiie-fourtli of
the officers and one-third of the rank and
file; but the immediate consequences to
France Avere immense — Tourney at once
surrendered ; Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges,
Dendernionde, Ostend, Avere taken in quick
succession; and the English and their
allies driven back behind the SAvamps and
canals of Holland.

None of all the French victories in that
age caused in Baris such a tumult of joy
and exultation. In England there Avere
lamentation, and Avrath, and courts-mar-
tial ; but not against the Duke of Cumber-
land, for the King’s son could do no Avrong.
In Ireland, as the neAvs came in, first, of
the British defeat, and then, gradually,
of the glorious achieA’-ements of the brigade
and the honofirs jiaid to Irish soldiers, a
sudden but silent flush of triumph and of
hope broke upon the oppressed race ; and
many a gloomy countenance brightened
Avith a gleam of stern joy, in the thought
that the long mourned ‘"Wild-geese”
Avould one day return, Avith freedom and
vengeance in the flash of the bayonets of
Fontenoy.

CHAPTER XI.

174--i— 17.>3.

Alarm in England. — Expedition of Prince Cb.arles
Edward. — •• A .Ale.ssage of Peace to Ireland.” — ■
A’ice-royalty of (,'hesterfield — Temporary Tolera-
tion of tlie Catholics. — Berkeley. — The Scottish
Insurrection. — Cnlloden. — "• Loyally” of the Irish.
— Lucas and the Patriots. — Debates on the Sup-
plies.— Boyle and Malone. — Popuiationof Ireland.

The battle of Fontenoy Avas an event in
the history of Ireland — not only bt^ the

English. But Voltaire always grudges any credit to
the liish troops, and neA’er speaks of them at all in
his histories Avhen he can possibly aA’oid it. D’Ar-
genson himself Avas aa’cII knoAvn to be no friend of
theirs, and AA'ould not have praised them on this oc-
casion if their bravery bad not attracted the notice
of all. Indeed, in the same letter to Voltaire this
courtier says A^ery emphatically — ‘“The truth, the
positive fact, Avithout flattery, is this — the king
gained the battle himself.”

The services of the brig.ade, hoAA'e\'er, on that
great day, AA’ere too notorious in the French army to
be altogether concealed. The Memoir cited before
from the Biographic Unicerselle says: ‘“It is noto-

rious hoAV much the Irish brigade contributed to the
victory by bursting at the point of the bayonet into
the flank of the terrible English column, AA'hile
Itichclieu cannonaded it in front.”

English historians scarce mention the brigade at
all on this occasion; but Lord Alahon is a creditable
exception. Hesays Count Saxe ‘“drcAV together the
household troops, the Avhole reserve, and every
other man that could be mustered ; but foremost of
all Avere the gallant exiles of the Irish brigade.”
Voltaire, hoAvever, speaking of the troops Avho
charged on the right flank, takes care to say “Zes
Irlaiidais les secondent.” But, perhaps, the best at-
testation to the services of the brigade Avas the im-
precation on the I’enal Code AATung from King
George Avlien he Avas told of the events of that day,
“ Cursed be the Iuavs Avhieh deprive 7iic of sucli sub-
jects !”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

reflected glory of Irish heroism, hut be-
cause disaster to Eiigdaud Avas followed,
as usual, by a relaxation of the atrocities
inflicted upon Irish Catholics, under tlie
Penal Code. England, indeed, Avas in
]U'ofound alarm, and not AA'ithout cause,
for, not only had the campaign in the
Netherlands gone so 'lecidedly against her,
but, almost immediately after, it became
knoAvn that preparations AA'ere on foot in
Erance for a new iuAnision on behalf of
Charles EdAvard, the “ Young Pretender.”
Tlie prince Avas noAv tA\*enty-five years of
age. He had been Avasting aAvay his youth
at Pome, A\diere his father. James III.,
then resided. In 17I2 he Avas recalled to
Erance, and some hopes Avere held out of
giA’ing him an armed force of Erench,
Scotcli, and Irish, to assert his father’s
rights to the croAvn of England. Eor
three years he had AA-aited impatiently for
his opportunity ; but the times Avere then
so busy that nobody thought of him. It
AA'as tlie Cardinal de Tencin, Avho one day
adA'ised him to AA'ait no longer, but go
AA'ith a fcAA^ friends to some point in the
north of Scotland, “Your presence alone,”
said the cardinal, “ A\dll create for you a
])arty and an army ; then France must
send you succour.” In short, the prince con-
sulted AA'ith a feAA" of his friends, chiefly Irish
officers ; an armed A'essel of eighteen guns
AA'as placed at his disposal by an Irish
mercliant of Nantes, named Walsh; a
Erench ship-of-Avar Avas ordered to escort
him ; and on the 12th of June, just one
month after Eontenoy, he set sail Avith
only seA’en attendants upon his adventur-
ous errand. The seA^en aaJio accompanied
him Avere the Marquis of Tullibardine,
brother to the Iduke of Athol, Sir Thomas
Sheridan, Colonel O’Sullivan (“ Avho Avas
appointed,” says ^"oltaire, “ Marechal des
Logis of the army not }’ot in being”), a
Scotch officer named IMacDonald, an Irish
officer named Kelly, and an English one
named Strickland. They landed on the
bare shore of jMoidart, in the Highlands,
Avhere the prince Avas quickly joined by
some of the Jacobite clans. thelMacDonald,
Lochiel, Cameron, and Fraser. The Dukes
of iVrgAde and Queensberry, however, Avho
controlled other powerful clans, kept aloof,
and prepared to take the part of tl'e reign-
ing king. King George Avas at this
moment in Hanover ; but the lords of his
council of regency made the best arrange-
ments possible for resistance in a countr}'
so nearly strijiped of all its regular troops,
and set a price upon the i)rince’s head.

In this emergency it Avas necessary to
think of Ireland, as it Avas considerd cer-
tain that the prince must haA'c had agents
in that country to stir up its ancient Jaco-

bite spirit ; besides, it AA’as known that the-
principal chiefs of the enterprise Avere offi-
cers of the Irish brigade, coming flushed
from Eontenoy ; and the Government
thought it Avas not in the nature of things
that there could be tranquillity in Ireland.
There must surely be an arrangement
either for stirring an insurrection in the-
island itself, or for sending fighting men
to Scotland. On the Avliole, it aa'us judged
needful, in this dangerous crisis of British
affairs, to shoAv some indulgence to the
Irish ; and, accordingly, in the month of
September, just as Prince Charles EdAA'ar.l
AA'as leading his mountaineers into Edin-
burgh, an amiable Auceroy Avas sent to
Dublin, bearing AAdiat might be called a
“ message of peace to Ireland.” This
Avas the Earl of Chesterfield, Avho had a
reputation for gallantry, accomplishments,
and an easy disposition. What Lord Ches-
terfield’s secret instructions AA'ere, Ave can
only judge by the course of his adminis-
tration. He at once put a stop to the-
business of priest-hunting, and alloAved
the Catholic chapels in Dublin and else-
Avhere to be opened for service. On tho
8th of October he met Parliament ; and
although in his speech on that occasion
he recommended the Houses to turn their
attention to the laAvs against Popery and
consider AAdiether they needed any amend-
ment, yet this Avas expressed in a cold and
rather equivocal manner, Avhich greatlj'
disgusted the fierce and gloomy bigots of
the “ Ascendency.” He recommended no
neAv penal laAvs, thinking probably there-
Avere quite enough already, and did not
even introduce that traditional exhorta-
tion to the Houses— to exercise extreme
A'igilance in' putting in force that Penal
Code Avhich they already had in such higli
perfection.

He soon made it evident, in short, that
actiA'e persecution Avas to be suspended,
although that indulgence AA'as contrary to
laAv; and those too zealous magistrates-
Avho had earned distinction by active
prosecution of Papists under former vice-
roys found ouIa' discouragement and re-
buke at the Castle. Chancellors, judges,,
and sheriffs AA'ere made to understand that
if they Avould do the king’s business
aright this time, they must leave “the
common enemy” in peace for the present.
But Lord Chesterfield, immediately on
coming OA'er, employed many confidential
agents, or, in short, spies, to find out Avhat
the Catholics Avere doing, thinking of, and
talking about — Avhether there Avere any
secret meetings— above all, Avhether there
Avas any apparent diminution in the num-
bers of young men at fairs and other
gatherings ; in short, AA'hether there Avas

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

73

any migration to Scotland, or any uneasy
movement of the people, as if in expecta-
tion of something coming.* Nothing of
all this did he find, and, in truth,
notliing of the kind existed. The
peo])le v'ere perfectly tranquil, not much
seeming even to know or to care what was
going on in Scotland, enjoying quietly
their umvonted exemption from the ac--
tual lash of the penal laws, and even re-
pairing to holy wells again without fear
of tine and Avhipping. It is true the lash
was still held over them, and they were
soon to feel it ; true, also, that they were
still excluded from all rights and fran-
chises as strictly as ever. Not one penal
law was repealed or altered ; hut there
Avas at least forbearance coAvards their
Avorship and their clergy. They might see
a venerable priest noAv Avalking, in day-
light even, from his “ registered ” parisli
into another, to perforin some rite or ser-
vice of religion, Avithout fear of informers,
of hand-cuffs, and of transportation. Nay,
bishops and vicars apostolic could venture
to cross the sea, and ordain priests and
confirm children, in a quiet Avay ; and it
Avas believed that not even a monk could
frighten Lord Chesterfield, Avho, in fact,
had lived for years in Trance, and re-
spected a monk quite as much as a rector
of the Establishment.

Having once satisfied himself that there
Avas no insurrectionary movemerft in the
country, and none likely to be, he Avas
not to be moved from his tolerant course
by any complaints or remonstrances.
Ear from yielding to the feigned alarm of
those Avho solicited him to raise new regi-
ments, he sent four battalions of the
soldiers then in Ireland to reinforce the
Duke of Cumberland. He discouraged
jobs, kept down expenses, took his plea-
sure, and made himself exceedingly popu-
lar in his intercourse Avith Dublin society;
and not having forgotten the i)reccpts
Avhich he had given to his son, the old
beau (he Avas noAv fifty-tAvo) pretended,
from habit, to be making love to the
Avives of men of all parties. When some
savage AscendancyProtestant Avould come
to him Avith tales of alarm, he usually
turned the conversation into a tone of
light badinage, Avhich perplexed and baf-
fled the man. One came to seriously put
his lordship on his guard by acquainting

* riowden. This worthy writer, as well as his
predecessor, Dr. Curry, is very emphatic in estab-
lishing the “ loyal” attitude of the Irish people upon
this occasion. Dr. Curry takes pains to prove “ that
no Irish Catholic, lay or clerical, was any way en-
gaged ill the ScoUish rebellion of 1715.” It is proba-
ble that Sheridan, O’Sullivan, Kelly, and other
French-Irish othcers, who fought in Scotland, were
Frenchmen by birth, like Lally, Dillon, and Clare. ,

him Avith the fact that his oavu coachman
Avas in the habit of going to Mass. Is
it possible ?” cried Chesterfield ; “ then
I Avill take care the felloAv shall not drive
me there.” A courtier burst into liis
apartment one morning, Avhile he Avas
sipjting his chocolate in bed. Avitli the
startling intelligence “ that tlie Papists
Avere rising ” in Connaught, ‘-Ah!” he
said, looking at his Avatch, “ ’tis nine
o’clock ; time for them to rise.” There
Avas evidently no dealing Avith such a
viceroy as this, Avho shoAA^ed such insensi-
bility to the perils of Protestantism and
the eA'il designs of the dangerous Papists.
Indeed, he Avas seen to distinguish by liis
peculiar admiration a Papist beauty. Miss
Ambrose, Avhoni he declared to be the
only “ dangerous Papist ” he had met in
Ireland.

It Avas during this period of quietude
and comparative relief that the excellent
Bishop Berkeley, of Cloyne, Avrote a
pamphlet, in the form of an address to
the Roman Catholics of his diocese of
Cloyne. He had evidently feared that
the Irish Catholics Avere secretly en-
gaged in a conspiracy to make an insur-
rection in aid of the Pretender ; and
Avrites in a kind and paternal manner, ex-
horting them to keep the peace and attend
quietly to their OAvn industry, though, in-
deed, the bishop is evidently at a loss for
arguments Avhich he can urge upon this
proscribed, disfranchised race, Avhy they
should take their lot quietly and be loyal
to a GoA’-ernment Avhich does not recog-
nize their existence.

In the ineauAvhile, Prince Charles Ed-
Avard, Avith his Highlanders, had Avon the
battle of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh
(2nd October), and a few days after that
victory arrived a French and a Spanish
ship, bringing money and a supply of Irish
officers, Avho, having served in France and
Spain, Avere capable of disciplining his rude
troops.* He marched south-AvestAvard,
took and garrisoned Carlisle, advanced
through Lancashire, Avliere a body of
three hundred English joined his stand-
ard, and thence as far as Derby, Avifhin
thirty leagues of London. Report, Avhich
exaggerates eA^erything, represented his
army as amounting to thirty thousand
men, and all Lancashire as having declar-
ed in his favour. The Habeas Corpus Act
Avas suspended ; the shops Avere closed
for a day or tAvo ; and Dutch and Hessian
troops Avere brought over in a great hurry
from the Continent. The Franco-Irish sol-
diers in the service of France noAV be-
came violently excited and impatient.
They imagined that a descent upon Eng-
* Voltaire.

74

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

land, in the neighbourhood of Plymouth,
would be quite practicable, as the passage
is so short from Calais or Boulogne. The
plan was to cross by night with "ten thou-
sand men and some cannon. Once dis-
embarked. a great part of England would
rise to join them, and they could easily
form a junction with the prince, probably
near London. The officers, of whom the
most active in this business was Lally,
demanded, as leader of the expedition, the
Duke de Richelieu, who had fought with
them at Fontenoy. They urged their
point so earnestly that at length permis-
sion was granted. But the expedition
never took place on anything like the
scale on which it was projected. M. de
Voltaire, in describing the preparations,
for once departs from his usual rule so
far as to praise an Irishman. He says :
Lally, who has since then been a lieu-
tenant-general, and Avho died so tragic a
death, was the soul of the enterprise. The
writer of this history, who long worked
along Avith him, can affirm that he has
never seen a man more full of zeal, and
that there needed nothing to the enter-
prise but possibility. It Avas impossible
to go to sea in face of the English squad-
rons ; and the attempt Avas regarded in
London as absurd.”*

In fact, only a handful of troops Avas
actually sent ; and these troops AA'ere
not Irish, but Scotch. Lord Drummond,
brother of the Duke of Perth, an officer
in the French service, set forth in one
A’essel, by Avay of the German Sea, and
arriA’ed safely at IMontrose Avith three
companies of the lloj/al £cossais, a Scot-
tish regiment in French service. But be-
fore this small reinforcement arrived, the
army of the Prince had already retired
from the centre of England. It had been
diminished and Aveakened by A'arious
causes, the principal of Avhich Avere jeal-
ousies of Highland chiefs against one an-
other, and of loAvland lairds against them
all, together Avith a general lack of dis-
cipline. and ere long a lack of jArovisions
also. The Jacobite force made the best
of its Avay back to Scotland, and soon af-
ter (January 2S, 17IG), utterly defeated

* Any attempt of any kind is ahA’ays regarded in
London as absurd ; and Voltaire Avas always too
ready to adopt the view of English affairs which
the English chose to give. He never wished for the
success of the Stuarts ; considered the House of
Hanover a blessing to England, and did not care for
Ireland at all. The reasons why he disliked the
Irish were, first, that they were good Catholics, and,
next, that the Irish in France were not very modest
in asserting their pretensions and demanding recog-
nition of their services. It was Voltaire’s corre-
spondent. D’Argenson, when minister, that said
once to King Louis, ‘‘ Those Irish troops give more
trouble than all the rest of your majesty’s army.”
“ My enemies say so,” answ ered the king.

an English force at Falkirk. This Avas
the last of its successes. The Duke of
Cumberland Avas uoav marching into Scot-
land Avith a considerable army, and ar-
riA'ed in Edinburgh on the 10th of Febru-
ary. Prince Charles Edward Avas obliged
to raise the siege of Stirling Castle. The
Avinter Avas severe, and subsistence AA^as
scarce. His last resource Avas noAv in the
northern Highlands, Avhere there Avas still
a force on foot, Avatching the seaports to
receive the supplies Avhich might still be
sent from France ; but most of the vsssels
destined to that service Avere captured by
English cruisers. Three companies of the
Irish regiment of Fitzjames arrHed safe-
ly, and Avere received by the Highlanders
with acclamations of joy — the Avomen
running doAvn to meet them and leading
the officers’ horses by the bridles. Still
the prince Avas uoav hard pressed by the
English ; he retired to Inverness, Avhich
he made his headquarters ; and on the
23rd of April he learned that the duke,
steadily adA’ancing through the moun-
tains, had crossed the river Spey, and
felt that a decisiA'e battle Avas uoav immi-
nent. On the 27th the tAAm armies AA'ere
in lAresence at Culloden— the prince AA'ith
live thousand men or less, the duke Avith
ten thousand, aa'oII supplied Avith both
cavalry and artillery. The English Avere
by this time accustomed to the Highland
manner of lighting, Avhich had so intimi-
dated them at first, and Avith such superi-
ority of numbers and equipments the
event could scarcely be doubtful. The
prince’s small army AA'ere totally defeat-
ed, Avith a loss of nine hundred killed
and three hundred and tAventy prisoners.
The prince himself made his Avay into
tlie mountains, accompanied by his faith-
ful friends, Iheridan and O’Sullivan ;
and his adA'entures, concealments, and
ultimate escape, are sufficiently' Avell
knoAvn. This Avas the last struggle of
the Stuarts, and their cause AA-as uoav
lost utterly' and for eA'er. There Avere
still, from time to time, j)lots, and
even attempts by the Scottish Jacobites
to make at least some commencement of
a iieAv insurrection, but all in A'ain. EA'er
after Jacobitism existed only' in songs and
toasts, sung and pledged in private so-
ciety' ; and many a house in Edinburgh
and glen in the Highlands is yet made to
ring AA'itn those plainth'e or Avarlike lyrics.
So long as the prince Ih'ed, the health of
Prince Charlie AA-as often drunk, or, ••The
King OA'er the Water but he died in Flor-
ence in 1788, Avithout legitimate posterity',
and the cause of the ancient family sank
definitiA'ely' into the domain of sentimental
associations and romantic souA'enirs.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

75

Almost at the very moment of the battle
of Culloden the conciliatory Earl of Ches-
terfield was recalled from Ireland. His
work was done, and done well. “England,”
says Plowden, with more than his usual
point and force, “ England was out of
danger, and Ireland could securely be put
again under its former regime^ After a
short interregnum, under three 1 rds-
justices, the Earl of Harrington was ap-
pointed lord-lieutenant on the 13th of
September.

There was certainly no excuse for bring-
ing the Irish back under the unmitigated
terrors of the penal laws, on account of
any manifestation of turbulence, or of a
design “to bring in the Pretender” during
the last insurrection. On this point the
most hostile authorities agree, and, al-
though we do not take credit for the fact
as a proof of “ loyalty” to the House of
Hanover, the fact itself is indisputable.
One remarkable witness is worth liearing
on this question. In the year 17G2, upon
a debate in the House of Lords about the
expediency of raising five regiments of
these Catholics, for the service of the
King of Portugal, Doctor Stone (then
primate), in answer to some commonplace
objections against the good faith and
loyalty of these people, which were re-
vived with virulence on that occasion,
declared publicly, in the House of Lords,
that “in the year 1717, after that rebellion
was entirely suppressed, happening to be
in England, he had an oj)portunity of per-
using all the papers of the rebels, and
their correspondents, which were seized
in the custody of Murray, the Pretender’s
secretary ; and that, after having spent
much time and taken great pains in ex-
amining them (not without some share of
the then common suspicion, that there
might be some private understanding and
intercourse between them and the Irish
Catholics), he could not discover the least
trace, hint, or intimation of such inter-
course or correspondence in them ; or of
any of the latter’s favouring, abetting, or
having been so much as made acquainted
with the designs or proceedings of these
rebels. And what,” he said, “ he wondered
at most of all Avas, that in all his re-
searches, he had not met with any passage
in any of these papers, from which ho
could infer that either their Holy Father
the Pope, or any of his cardinals, bishops,
or other dignitaries of that church, or any
of the Irish clergy, had, either, directly
or indirectly, encouraged, aided, or ap-
l)roved of, the commencing or carrying on
•of that rebellion.”

Another, and still more singular attes-
tation to the same fact is in Chief- Justice

Marlay’s address to the Dublin Grand-
Jury, after the suppression of the Scottish
insurrection. “ When posterity read . . .
that Ireland, Avhere much the greatest part
of the inhabitants profess a religion which
sometimes has authorized, or at least jus-
tified rebellion, not only preserved peace
at home, but contributed to restore it
amongst his subjects of Great Britain,
will they not believe that the people of
Ireland ivere actuated by something more
than their duty and allegiance ? Will
they not be convinced that they ivere ani-
mated by a generous sense of gratitude
and zeal for their great benefactor, and
fully sensible of the happines of being
blessed by living under the protection of
a monarch, avIio, like the glorious King
William,” &c. Thus, if Irish Catholics of
the present day are ivilling to plume
themselves, as some Catholic Avriters have
done, upon the unshaken loyalty of their
ancestors in 1715, there is no doubt that
they are fully entitled to all the credit
Avhich can come to them from that cir-
cumstance.

Under Lord Harrington’s administration
the debates on money bills formed the chief
subject of i)ublic interest, and the only field
ouAvhich Irish “patriotism” and the cham-
pions of English domination tried their
strength. It Avas also becoming a matter
more and more important to the English
Government, because, notAvithstanding the
discouragements of trade and the dis-
tresses of the country people, Ireland had
noAV a surplus revenue to dispose of, and
the patriots naturally supposed this to be
fairly applicable to public Avorks Avithin
the island. Primate Stone, hoAvever, aaJio
Avas noAv in possession of all the influence
of Boulter, and imbued Avith the same
thoroughly British principles, contended
that all the surplus revenue of Ireland,
as a dependent kingdom, belonged of
right to the CroAvn. The patriot i>arty
Avere led chiefly by tAAm men — Ilenry
Boyle, the Speaker of the House, and the
Prime Sergeant, Antony Malone— the for-
mer an ambitious and intriguing poli-
tician, the latter an eloquent debater and
most able constitutional laAA^yer. Outside
of the House the patriotic spirit of the
jACople — that is, the Protestant people —
Avas inflamed by the Avritings of Dr.
Charles Lucas, Avho had uoav, from petty
corporation politics, risen to the height
of the great argument of national inde-
pendence. But it soon appeared that the
Irish House of Commons Avas not yet
prepared for the reception of such bold
doctrines. Lucas and his Avritings Avere
made the subject of a resolution in the
I House of Commons ; he Avas but faintly

7G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

defended by his OAvn parlizans, and the
resolution passed, declaring him as “ an
enemy to his country,” even for asserting
the rightful independence of that very
Parliament which had proscribed him.
This event befell in 174D ; a reward was
offered for the apprehension of Lucas,
and he fled from the kingdom. As usual
in such cases, the persecution directed
against him attracted more attention to
his writings and bred more sympathy with
his principles ; so that when he returned a
few years after, he became, for a time, the
most popular man in the kingdom. To in-
ternational questions thus narrowed down
to the mere right of voting or witliholding
money, it was impossible to give any high
constitutional interest, and, in fact, dur-
ing this administration not a single step
in advance was gained by the “ Patriot ”
party. The struggle for power and
influence between Primate Stone and
Speaker Boyle “ Avas no more,” says IVfac-
Kevin, than the struggle of two ambitious
and poAverful men for their oavii ends.”

In 1751 Lord Harrington Avas recalled.
The Duke of Dorset, for the second time,
came to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, and the
question of Irish parliamentary control
over the revenues of the country came at
last to a crisis, and received a solution ATry
little to the comfort of the Patriots. In
the last session under Harrington’s vice-
royalty, as there Avas a considerable sur-
iflus in the Irish Exchequer, the House of
Commons determined to apply it toAvards
the discharge of the national debt. A
bill had been accordingly prepared and
transmitted to England Avith this vieAv,
to Avhich Avas affixed the preamble ;
“ Whereas on the 25th of March last a
considerable balance remained in the hands
of the vice-treasurers or receivers-general
of the kingdom, or their deputy or depu-
ties, unapplied ; and it Avill be for your
majesty’s service, and for the ease of your
faithful subjects in this kingdom, that so
much thereof as can be coiiA'eniently spared
should be paid, agreeably to your majest}^’s
most gracious intention, in discharge of
part of the national debt,” &c. On the
transmission of this bill to London (Mr.
Pelham being then prime minister), it Avas
urged by the warm partisans of preroga-
tive in the council that the Commons of
Ireland had no right to apply any part of
the unappropriated revenue, nor even to
take into consideration the propriety of
such appropriation, Avithout the previous
consent of the croAvn formally declared.
When the Duke of Dorset cameoA'er, and
opened the session of 1751, he informed
the two Houses that he Avas commanded
by the king to acquaint them that his

{ majesty, ever thoughtful of the Avelfare
j ami happiness of his subjects, Avould
graciously consent and recommend it to
them that such part of the money then
remaining in his treasury, as should be
thought consistent Avith the public serAuce,
be applied tOAvards the further reduction
of the national debt. “ Consent ” invoHed
a principle, and the Commons took Are
at the Avord, They framed the bill,
appropriating £120,000 for the purpose
already stated, and omitted in its pre-
amble all mention of the consent. But
ministers retunied it Avith an alteration
in the preamble signifying the consent, and
containing the indispensable Avord. And
the House, uiiAvilling to drive the matter
to extremities, passed the bill AA'ithout
further notice. Thus Avas established a
precedent for the King of England con-
senting to the Irish Earliament voting
their oAvn money. So far had the dif-
ferences proceeded, AA'hen Mr Pelham died,
and the Duke of NeAvcastle, AAdio succeeded
him as prime minister, zealous to uphold
the prerogative, to improA'-e upon the i^re-
cedent, and to repeat the lesson jnst giv'en
to the as])iring colonists of Ireland, sent
positive directions to Dorset, in opening
the session of 1753. to repeat the expres-
1 sion of his majesty’s gracious consent in
i mentioning the application of surplus
j revenue. The House, in their Address,

! not only again omitted all reference to
. that gracious consent, but even the former
J expressions of grateful acknoAvledgment ;

1 and the bill of supplies AAms actually
j transmitted to England Avithout the usual
i complimentary preamble. The ministers
of the CroAvm in England, in their great
Avisdom, thought fit to supply it thus :
And your majesty, ever attentHe to the
ease and happiness of your faitliful sub-
j jects, has been graciously pleased to sig-
nify that you Avould consent,'’ and so forth.

When the bill came over thus amended
there Avas much excitement both in Par-
liament and in society. Malone Avas
learned and convincing. Boyle, by his
extensive influence and connections in
Parliament, poAverfully seconded, or
rather led, the opposition. And, not-
Avithstanding the utmost exertions of the
king’s serA'ants to do the king’s business,
the spirit of independence Avas sufficiently
roused to cause the entire defeat of the
amended bill, though only by a majority
of five votes. The Commons Avished to
appropriate the money — the king con-
sented, and insisted upon consenting ;
and then the Commons Avould not ap-
propriate it at all, because the king
consented. The defeat of the bill Avas
considered as a Auctory of patriotism,

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

77

and was celebrated with universal rejoic-
ings— even the Catholics joining in tlie
general joy, for they felt instinctively that
it was the weight of English predominance
which kept them in their degraded po-
sition, and necessarily sympathized with
every struggle against that. Yet after
all, this spirited conduct of the Commons
was but an impotent protest ; for the
public service was now left wholly un-
i^rovided for, the circulation of money
almost ceased, trade and business suffered,
and a clamour soon arose, not more against
the Government than against tlie Tatriots.
Thus the Court party had its revenge.
Tlie lord-lieutenant took the whole sur-
plus revenue out of the treasury by virtue
of a “ royal letter so the king, after all,
not only consented to the act, but did the
act wholly himself ; and Speaker Boyle
was removed from his seat at the Privy
Council, and Malone’s patent of prece-
dence as prime sergeant was annulled.
The viceroy and the primate took care
to put some mark of royal displeasure
upon every one who had voted down the
Supply Bill ; and it may be doubted
whether the English interest did not gain
a more decisive victory by thus trampling
with impunity upon all constitutional
forms, than if the Irish Pai'liament had
quietly submitted to the servile form pre-
scribed to it. There was no visible
remedy ; the mob of Dublin might hoot
the viceroy when his coach appeared in
the streets ; they could threaten and mob
the primate or Hutchinson, or others wlio
were conspicuous in asserting the ob-
noxious royal prerogative ; yet they had
no alternative but to submit. In the dis-
cussion of this question we might r-epeat
the words of Swift when speaking of the
case of Molyneux : ‘‘ The love and torrent
of power prevailed. Indeed, the argu-
ments on both sides were invincible. Eor,
in reason, all government without the
consent of the governed is the very dell-
nition of slavery ; but, in fact, eleven
men vv^ell armed v/ill certainly subdue one
single man in his shirt.”

Up to this period we have invariably
found the struggles of the colony to take
rank as a nation — of its Parliament to as-
sert its independence — successfully re-
sisted and triumphantly crushed down.
The assertion of the jurisdiction of the
Irish lords in the case of “ Sherlock
and Annesley” was instantly followed by
the Declaratory Act, which enacted that
the Irish lords had no jurisdiction at
all. The more anxiously our Irish
Parliament affirmed its sovereign right,
the more systematically were a,cts passed
by the English Parliament to bind Ireland.

And now the attemped vindication by the
Irish Legislature of its right to vote, or
not vote, its own money, was only the
occasion of a high-handed royal outrage,
trampling upon every pretence of con-
stitutional law ; and Irish “ Patriots,” if
unanswerable in their arguments, were
impotent to make them good in fact ;
for “the arguments on both sides were
invincible.” It is, in truth, impossible
to avoid assent to the conclusions of
Lord Clare (not O’Brien, King James’s
Lord Clare, but Eitzgibbon, King
George’s Lord Clare), in his often-quoted
speech fifty years later, in so far as he
demonstrated the anomalous and untena-
ble relation between the two Parliaments
of England and of Ireland. The English
Protestant colony in Ireland, whicli as-
pired to be a nation, amounted to some thing
under half a million of souls in 1751.*
It was out of the question that it should
be united on a footing of equality with its
potent mother country, by “ the golden
link of the crown,” because the wearer of
that crown was sure to be guided in his
policy by English ministers, in accordance
with English interests ; and as the army
was the king’s army, he could always
enforce that policju The fatal weakness
of the colony was, that it would not
amalgamate with the mass of the Irish
people, so as to form a true nation, but
set up the vain pretenstion to hold down
a whole disfranchised people with one
hand, and defy all England with the other.

Still the colonists were multiplying and
growing rich ; and happily for them,
England was on the eve of disaster and
humiliation; and a quarter of a century
later a gracious opportunity was to arise
which gave them real independence for at
least a few years.

CIIAPTEPv XII.

1753— tTGO.

Unpopularity of tlie Duke of Dorset. — F.arl of
Kildare. — His Address. — Patriots in power. —
Pension List. — Duke of Bedford lord-lieutenant. —
Case of Saul. — Catholic meeting in Dublin. —
Commencement of Catholic agitation. — Address
of the Catholics received. — First recognition of
the Catliolics as subjects. — Lucasian mobs. —
Project of Union. — Thurot’s expedition. — Death
of George II — Population. — Distress of the
country.— Operation of the Penal Laws. — The
Geoghegans. — Catholic Petition. — Berkeleys
“Querist.”

After these high-handed measures of the
English ministry, of vdiich Dorset was but
* We take the estimate of the entire population
for that year from the tables in Thom’s oflicial Al-
manac and Directory. For 1754 it is estimated at
2.372,634 men, women, and children. At the rate
of live Catholics to one Protestant (which is Dr.
Boulter’s estimate), the active part of the population
was under half a million. The rest was assumed
by law not to exist in the world.

78

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the instrument, he became intolerable to
the people of Dublin, as Avell as his son.
Lord George Sackville, the primate, and
every one professing “ to do the king’s
business in Ireland.” The duke, even
before being recalled, found it necessary
to go over to England, partly to avoid the
odium of the Irish, but chiefly to take
care of his interests and those of his
family at the court. The colonial patriot-
ism ran high ; the mob of Dublin became
“ Lucasian.” The primate durst not
appear on the streets; and the manner
was then first introduced of expressing,
by toasts, at private supper parties, some
stirring patriotic sentiment or keen in-
vective against the administration, in
terse language, Avhich Avould pass from
mouth to mouth, and thence get into the
neAvsiAapers. One of these toasts Avas,

“ May all Secretary-Bashaws and lordly
high-priests be kept to their tackle, the
SAvord and the Bible.” Another Avas,
“ INIay the importation of Ganymedes into
Ireland be discontinued,” Avhich Avas an
allusion to unnameable vices attributed to
Primate Stone.

However, the chief interest of the
struggle betAveen court and country Avas
noAv, for the moment, transferred to the
cabinets and antechambers of ministers
at London. The Earl of Kildare, after-
AA'ards Duke of Leinster, a high-spirited
nobleman, as became his Geraldine blood,
Avas moved Avith indignation at the late
proceedings in his country ; for the
Geraldines had always considered them-
selves Irish, and long before these Crom-
Avellian and Williamite colonists had
appeared in the island his ancestors Avere
not only Irish and chiefs of Clan-Geralt,
butAvere even reproached as being actually
more Irish than the Irish. Of course, the
family had long ago “ conformed,” like
most of the O’Briens and De Burghos,
and many other ancient tribes of French
and Irish stock ; othenvise the Earl could
not have sat in Parliament, nor taken the
bold step Avhich so much astonished
British courtiers, at this period. He AA’ent
over to Ijondon, had an audience of the
king, and presented him Avith his OAvn
hand an address of remonstrance from
himself against the Avhole course of the
Irish Government under Lord Dorset.
This document spoke very plainly to the
king; told him ‘‘his loyal kingdom of
Ireland Avore a face of discontent ;” that
this discontent i)roceeded not from fac-
tion, but from the malfeasance of mini-
sters ; it complained of the odious duum-
virate of the primate and the viceroy ;
compared the latter Avitli Strafford, the
former A\flth Laud and Wolscy, and

especially exposed the insolent behaAuour
of Dorset’s son. Lord George Sackville, in
mischievously meddling Avith all the public
affairs of the kingdom.

Ministers Avere surprised at what they
considered the boldness of this proceeding.
The Earl of Holderness Avrites to the Irish
Chancellor Jocelyn, “ My good lord chan-
cellor— I am not a little com-erned that
the noble Earl of Kildare should take sa
bold a step as he may repent hereafter.

* * He Avas but ill received, and very
coolly dismissed, as, indeed, the presump-
tion Avell merited ; for Avhy should his
majesty receive any remonstrances con-
cerning his kingdom or government, but
from the proper ministers, or through the
usual channels, namely, both Houses of
Parliament ! I desire my compliments
may attend his grace, my lord primate,
and Avish him success in all laudable
endeavours for poor IreiaiuV But, in
fact, although the earl’s address AA'as
spoken of generally as an act of teme-
rity, “ Asdiicli nothing but the extreme
mildness of goA^ernment could alloAv to
remain unpunished,” yet it appears he felt
extremely easy about these hints of dan-
ger to himself. If it be true that he Avas
“ coolly dismissed ” from the royal audi-
ence, yet the government of Ireland Avas
verj^ quickly modelled upon his vieAvs, or
almost placed substantially in his hands.
Dorset Avas soon recalled, and Avas suc-
ceeded by the Lord Hartington, a personal
and political ally of Kildare. Mr. PIoav-
den alleges, and the result seems to con-
firm it, that this Auceroy came over to
Ireland leagued by a secret treaty Avitli
the Patriot party, through the intermedia-
tion of Lord Kildare, and in especial had
a clear understanding Avith Boyle and
Malone. Stone AA’as removed from the
priA'y council ; Boyle Avas made Earl of
Shannon, and entered the Upper House,
accepting at the same time a pension of
£2,0U0 for thirty-one years. Ponsonby
Avas elected Speaker in his place. The
system of the English Court Avas noAV
to buy up the Patriots AAuth place and
patronage. EA'en Malone Avas promised
the succession to Boyle as Chancellor of
the Exchequer ; but tlie public, and his
OAvn respectable family, raised such an
outcry against this that he Avas ashamed
to accept it, and declined. Boyle continued
nominal chancellor, and Malone conde-
scended to receive the profits of the place.

j We hear but little more of any trouble

I given to English rule by this band of

* Irish Patriots, and the bitter reflection
j of Thomas MacXevin upon the Avliole

' I transaction seems a\ ell justified. ‘‘ Des-

I I potism, AA’ithout corruption, Avas not con-

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

7D

sidered as a fit exemplar of government,
and the matter for the present terminated
by a title and a pension conferred on the
greatest patriot of the day, Henry Boyle
bore about the blushing honours of his
public virtue, emblazoned on the coronet
of the Earl of Shannon. The primate
did not fare so well ; he was removed
from the privy council. The rest of the
Patriots found comfortable retreats in
various lucrative offices, and the most
substantial compliments were paid to
those who were noisiest in their patriotism
and fiercest in their opposition.”

In 1756 the lord-lieutenant, now Duke
of Devonshire, after having thus gratified
the “ Patriots,” returned to England in
delicate health — leaving as lords-justices,
Jocelyn, lord chancellor, and the Earls of
Kildare and Bessborough.

It is painful to be obliged to admit that
the transferrence of the power and pat-
ronage of the Irish Government into the
hands of the Patriots was not productive of
any Avdiolesome effect whatsoever — neither
in favour of the Catholic masses (for the
Patriots were their mortal enemies), nor
in favour of public virtue and morality,
for nobody demands to be bought at so
high a price as a patriot. Accordingly,
we soon find the whole attention of Parlia-
ment and of the country absorbed by
inquiries into the enormously increased
pension list upon the Irish Establishment.
In March, 1756, some member (unpen-
sioned) of the Commons, introduced a
bill to A’’acate the seats of such members
of the House of Commons as should
accept any pension or civil office of profit
from the CroAvn. It Avas voted doAvn by
a vote of eighty-five to fifty-nine — a fatal
and ominous Avarning to the nation. On
the day Avhen that measure Avas debated,
a return of pensions AA^as brought in and
read. Many of the first names in Ireland
ajipear upon the shameful list ; many
foreigners or Englishmen ; feA\^ or no
meritorious servants of the state. The
Countess of Yarmouth stood upon that
return for £4000 ; Mr. Bellingham Boyle,
a near relative of the illustrious “ Pat-
riot,” for £800 “ during pleasure” (that
is, so long as he should make himself
generally useful), and the Patriot him-
self, now Earl of Shannon, closed up the
list Avith his pension of £2000 a year.

Although the bill to vacate the seats of
pensioners aa'us lost, the revelations of
prevailing corruption Avere so gross that
certain other members of Parliament not
yet pensioned, again returned to the charge
upon this popular grievance. A series of
resolutions Avas, in fact, reported by the
committee on public accounts, not, indeed.

making personal and ungracious reference
to the private concerns of members of
Parliament, but stating in general terms
that the pension list had become alto-
gether too enormous ; that it had been
increased since the 23rd of March, 1755
— that is, Avithin one year — by no less
than £2^,\Qo per annum ; that these pen-
sions w'ere lavished upon foreigners^ and
upon people not resident in Ireland ; and
that all this Avas a loss and injury to the
nation and to his majesty’s service. Upon
these resolutions, Avhich did not touch too
closely the Patriots’ OAvn private arrange-
ments, there Avas a patriotic struggle, and
even a patriotic triumph. The resolutions
Avere passed, and Avere presented by
Speaker Ponsonby to the viceroy, Avith the
usual request that they should be trans-
mitted to the king. He only replied that
the matter Avas of too high a nature for
him to promise at once that he Avould
forAvard such resolutions. Thereupon the
Si)eaker returned to the House and re-
ported his reception. It Avas determined
to make a stand, and next day a motion
Avas made that all orders not yet proceeded
on should be adjourned, the House not
having yet received any ansAver from the
lord-lieutenant as to the transmission of
their resolutions. This, of course, meant
that they Avould vote no supplies until
they should be satisfied on that point.
The motion to adjourn everything Avas
carried, by a strict party A'ote — those in
faAmur of the resolutions voting for the
adjournment, and those opposed to them
voting against it. The lord-lieutenant
immediately sent a message that he Avould
transmit the resolutions without delay.
Thus a small patriotic victory Avas gained
Avithout any one being injured, for nothing
Avhatsoever came of these resolutions.

In September, 1757, the Duke of Bed-
ford came over as lord-lieutenant —
specially instructed by Mr. Pitt to go
upon the conciliatory policy. He aa’us to
employ all softening and healing arts of
government. In fact, it is to the Duke of
Bedford’s administration Ave are to go
back for the commencement of that Avell-
knoAvn Whig policy, of making use of
the Patriotic Irish party, and even of the
Catholics themselves, in sujAport of the
Whig party in England. There had been
lately a consideral)le aggravation of the
sufferings of the Catholics under the
penal laAvs ; the gentleness and forbear-
ance exercised toAvards them during
Chesterfield’s vice-royalty had no longer
a sufficient reason and motive ; the hal-
cyon days of connivance and extra-legal
toleration Avere over, and the Catholics
were once more under the full pressure of

80

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the laws “ for preventing the growth of
Popery,”

A remarkable example of this low
condition of the Catholics occurred the
year following, A young Catholic girl
named O’Toole was importuned by some
of her friends to conform to the Esta-
blished Church ; to avoid this persecution,
she took refuge in the house of another
friend and relative, a Catholic merchant
in Dublin, named Saul, Legal proceed-
.ngs were at once taken against Mr, Saul,
in the name of a Protestant connection
of the young lad3% Of course, the trial
went against Saul ; and on this occasion
he was assured from the bench that
Papists had no rights, inasmuch as “ the
laAv did not presume a Papist to exist in
the kingdom ; nor could they so much as
hreathe there without the connivance of Go-
vernment.” And the court was right, for
such was actually" the Law,” or what
jiasscd for law in Ireland at that time.

On the arrival of the Duke of Ledford
there had even been prepared, by some
members of Parliament, the heads of a
bill ” for a netv and more stringent penal
latv regulating the registration of priests,
and intended to put an effectual end, by
dreadful penalties, to the regular course
of hierarchical church government, which
had, uj) to that time, been carried on
regularly, though clandestinely and
against the law. The menace of this
new law and the late proceedings re-
respecting Mr Saul, caused a good deal
of agitation and excitement among the
Catholics, and the leading people of that
religion in Dublin even ventured to hold
small meetings in an obscure manner, to
consult on the best tva}' of meeting the
fresh atrocities wliich were now threaten-
ed, In these preliminaiy meetings two
factions at once developed themselves ;
the long period of unacquaintance with
all political and civil life had rendered
the Catholic people almost incapable of
efficient organization and co-02teration ;
and so the}^ divided forthtvith into two
parties — the one led by Lord Trimbleston,
the other by Dr, Pitzsimon, At length
certain of the more rational and moderate
leaders of the Catholics, Charles O’Conor,
of Lelanagar ; Dr, Curiy, author of the
Historical Review of the Civil IFtn-s; ]\Ir,
Wyse, a Yvaterford merchant, together
with Lords Eingal, Taafe, and Delvin,
originated a new movement by a meeting
in Dublin, which established the first
“ Catholic Connnittee,” and commenced
that career of ** agitation” which has since
been carried to such great lengths. The
first performances of this Catholic Com-
mittee have been, and will always be,

very variously appreciated by Irishmen,
in accordance with their different ideas
as to the policy and duty of a nation held
in so degrading a bondage. It became
known, during the administration of
Lord Bedford, that the Jacobites in
Prance were preparing another expedition
for a descent somewhere on the British
coast, or Ireland ; and on the 21) th of
October, 1751), the lord-lieutenant de-
livered a message to Parliament, in
which he stated that he had received a
letter from Mr. Secretary Pitt, written
bj^ the king’s express command, inform-
ing him that Prance was jjreparing a new
invasion, and desiring him to exhort the
Irish people to show on this occasion their
tried lo^'alt}' and attachement to the
House of Hanover. Immediately an
address, testifying the most devoted
loyalty,” was jirepared ly the Catholic
Committee, It was written by Charles
O’Conor, and signed b\" three hundred of
the most respectable Catholic inhabitants
of Dublin. But here a difficult}* arose ;
Catholics were not citizens, nor subjects ;
they were not supposed to exist at all;
other attempts they had made to testify
their lov'alty” had been repulsed with
the most insolent disdain ; and they knew
well they Avere exposing themselves to
another humiliation of the same kind on
tlie present occasion. However, two bold
Papists undertook to present the address
to Ponsonb}^, Speaker of the House of
Commons, These Avere Antoin* Mac-
Dermott and John CrumiA. They Avaited
on the Speaker and read him the loA’al
manifesto. Mr. Ponsonb}’, a Whig and a
“ Patriot,” took the document, laid it on
the table, and said not one Avord, and
boAved the delegates out. There Avere a
feAV days of agitated susjiense ; and then,
on the 10th of December, the lord-lieu-
tenant sent a gracious ansAver. He did
more ; he caused his ansAver to be printed
in the Dublin Gazette, thereb}" officially
recognizingthe existence (though humble)
of persons calling themselves Catholics in
Ireland, The Speaker then sent for the
tAvo gentlemen Avho had presented tlie
address, and ordered Mr. IMacDermott to
read it to the House. IMr. IMacDermott
read it, and then thanked the Speaker, in
the name of the Irish Catholics, for his
condescension, IMr. Ponsonb}* most gra-
ciously replied that he counted it a
favour to be jAut in the AvaA* of serving so
respectable a bodt* as the gentlemen Avho
had signed that address.” The Catholics,
then, for the first time since the Treaty of
Limerick, Avere publicl}' and officially ad-
mitted to be in a species of existence.
Here Avas a triumph !

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

81

In fact, this recognition of Irish Catho-
lics as a part of the King of England’s
subjects was a kind of admission of that
body over the threshold of the temple of
civil and constitutional freedom. We
may feel indignant at the extreme humi-
lity of the proceedings of the committee,
and lament that the low condition of our
countrymen at that time left them no
alternative but that of professing a hypo-
critical “ loyalty” to their oppressors ;
for the only other alternative was secret
organization to prepare an insurrection
for the total extirpation of the English
colony in Ireland, and, carefully disarmed
as the Catholics were, they doubtless felt
this to be an impossible project. Yet, for
the honour of human nature, it is necessary
to state the fact that this profession of
loyalty to a king of England was in reality
insincere. Hypocrisy, in such a case, is
less disgraceful than would have been a
genuine canine attachment to the hand
that smote and to the foot that kicked.

The real object of the conciliatory
policy which the Duke of Bedford was
instructed to pursue towards the Catholics
w'as not only to give additional strength
to the Whig party in England, but also to
prepare the way for a legislative union
between the two countries ; in other
words, a complete absorption and ex-
tinguishment of the shadowy nationality
of Ireland in the more real and proper na-
tionality of her “ sister country,” and even
so early as the time of Bedford’s adminis-
tration the English ministry had begun to
count upon the Catholics as an anti-Irish
element which might be used to crush the
rising aspirations of colonial nationality.
Humours began to be current in Dublin that
a project tvas on foot to destroy the Irish
Parliament and effect a union with Great
Britain, similar to that which had been
made with Scotland; and the people of the
metropolis became violently excited. On
the 3rd of December, in this year (1753),
the mob rose and surrounded the Houses of
Parliament with loud outcries. When any
member was seen arriving they stopped
him, and obliged him to swear that he
would oppose a union. The lord chan-
cellor and some of the bishops were
hustled and maltreated, and one member
of the privy council was flung into the
Eiffey. The tumult became so dangerous
that at length Mr. Speaker Ponsonby, and
IMr. Kigby, the secretary, were obliged to
make their appearance in the portico of
the House, and solemnly assure the people
that no union was in contemplation, and
that, if such a measure were proposed,
they would resist it to the last extremity.
The riot, however, was not suppressed

without military aid, and, for the first
time, zealous patriotic Protestants of the
English colony were ridden down by the
king’s troops. The anti-union demonstra-
tion was essentially and exclusively Pro-
testant, and the Catholics of Dublin made
haste to clear themselves of all complieity
in it. An inquiry was instituted in Parlia-
ment to ascertain who were the authors
and promoters of the disturbance ; and
on that occasion, as some of the very
persons guilty in that respect did, by their
interest in both Houses, endeavour to fix
the odium of it on the obnoxious Papists
(to which conscious untruth and calumny
the war then carrying on against France
gave some kind of colour), the Catholics
thought it high time publicly to vindicate
their characters from that and every other
vile suspicion of disloyalty, by an address
to his grace the lord-lieutent, testifying
their warmest gratitude for the lenity
they experienced under his majesty’s Go-
vernment, and their readiness to concur
with the faithfulest and most zealous of
his mayesty’s other subjects, in opposing,
by every means in their power, all, both
foreign and domestic, enemies.*

On the same occasion Prime Sergeant
Stannard, of the “Patriot” party, a
gentleman of high honour and probity, in
ins speech in the House of Commons, con-
trasting the riotous conduct of the Lucas-
ians (as they were then called after their
chief), with the quiet and dutiful behaviour
of the Roman Catholics, in that and other
dangerous conjunctures, gave the follow-
ing testimony in favour of these latter:
“ We have lived amicably and in harmony
amongourselves, and Avitlioutany material
party distinctions, for several years past,
till within these few months ; and during
the late wicked rebellion in Scotland, tve
had the comfort and satisfaction to see
that all was quiet here. And to the
honour of the Roman Catholics be it re-
membered, that not a man of them moved
tongue, pen, or sword, upon the then or
the present occasion ; and I am glad to
And that they have a grateful and proper
sense of the mildness and moderation of
our Government. For my part, while
they behave with duty and allegiance to
the present establishment, I shall hold
them as men in equal esteem with others
in every point but one ; and while their
private opinion interferes not with public
tranquility, I think their industry and
allegiance ought to be encouraged.”

It deserves remark, then, that on this
first occasion when a project of legislative
union tvas really entertained by an Eng-
lish ministry, the “Patriot ” party, which
* Curry’s Review.

82

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

opposed it, was wholly and exclusively of
the Protestant colony, and that the Catho-
lics of Ireland were totally indifferent ;
and, indeed, they could not rationally be
otherwise, as it was quite impossible for
them to feel an attachment to a national
legislature in which they were not re-
presented, and for whose members they
could not even cast a vote.

The Trench naval expedition was in
preparation at the ports of Brest and
Dunkirk, and the enthusiastic Pranco-
Irish officers did not doubt that if it could
once land in Ireland, and obtain a first
success, the Avhole Catholic nation would
rise to support it. The anticipation
would have been realized, if the two
squadrons could have united, and then
entered a southern or Avestern port. But
noAv, as in other instances, the fortune of
war and Aveather on the sea befriended
England. The Brest squadron Avas a
poAverfnl one, and was placed under
command of Admiral Confians ; that
fitted out at Dunkirk Avas intrusted to
Thurot, A\dio had gained distinction as
commander of a privateer, sAveeping the
Channel and German Ocean of British
commerce. In the year 1759, our excel-
lent and conscientious historian, PloAvden,
was a hoy, and in company Avith some
other Catholic boys, Avas on board a
vessel bound for France, to obtain the
education Avhich Avas by laAv debarred
them at home. Their ship Avas chased,
hoarded and captured, hetAveen Ostend
and Dunkirk, hy a French vessel of Avar,
Avhich turned out to be no other than
Thurot’s ship, the Belle Isle, commanded
hy that redoubtable sea-roA'er. The boys,
along Avith the rest of the creAv, Avere
carried as prisoners to Flushing, Avhere
they remained some Aveeks, guarded on
hoard the Belle Isle while she Avas under-
going repairs. PloAvden describes here a
desperate mutiny of the Avild creAv of the
Belle Isle, Avdiich, hoAvever, Avas fiercely
suppressed by the officers — Thurot him-
self killing tAAm of the ringleaders and
cutting off the cheek of another. The
young prisoners Avere shortly after ex-
changed.

This rude but gallant seaman Avas
placed in command of the squadron of
five ships then being fitted out at Dun-
kirk, to co-operate Avith Confians. In the
autumn of 1759 they both sailed; their
rendezvous A\as to be in the Irish Sea.
Confians Avas encountered by the English
IlaAvke and entirely defeated, Avhile
Thurot, after long cruising around the
islands, and Avjntering in Norway, at last,
in February, 17G0, entered Lough Foyle
AA'ith only three of his five vessels. One

had been lost, and one had been sent hack
to France. He did not think fit to come-
up to Derry, Avhich he probably imagined
to be a stronger place than it really Avas,
but coasted round the shores of Antrim,
and suddenly appeared before Carrick-
fergus Castle, on Belfast Lough, upon
the 21st of February, He summoned the
castle to surrender ; it Avas defended by a
small garrison, commanded by a Colonel
Jennings; and on Jennings’ refusal to
capitulate, the cannonade began. The
peaceable Protestant citizens of Belfast
could noAv, from their own streets, see
the fiash and hear the roar of the guns.
They did not yet knoAv the force of the
invading squadron, and for a time believed
that here Avere at last the French “ bring-
ing in the Pretender,” oA'erthroAAung the
“ Ascendency,” and taking back the for-
feited estates. After a gallant resistance,
the castle and tOAvn of Carrickfergus Avere
taken, but Avith the loss of a considerable
number of French soldiers, and Clobert,
the brigadier-general of their land force,
Avas Avounded. The French kept possesion
of the tOAvn and Castle for five days, and
levied some contributions in Carrickfergus
of such things as they needed after their
long cruise. The town of Belfast con-
tained at that time less than nine thousand
inhabitants, but it Avas a prosperous trad-
ing place, and entirely Protestant. Alarm
Avas instantly sent out through the counties
of DoAvn, Antrim, and Armagh, the most
populous Protestant districts of the island^
and Avithin this interval of five days, tAvo
thousand two hundred and tAventy vol-
unteers Avere thronging toAvards Belfast,
badly armed, indeed, and not disciplined
at all, but zealous for the “Ascendency ”'
and the House of Hanover. Thurot had
little more than five hundred soldiers
left, besides his sailors; he kneAv also
that English men-of-Avar Avould very soon
appear at the mouth of Belfast Lough ;
therefore he did not venture upon Bel-
fast, especially as there Avas no sign of a
Catholic rising anyAvhere to support him.
He re-embarked on the 26th, and AA'as
encountered in the Irish Sea by three
English ships of superior force. He gaA'e-
battle, and fought Avith the utmost des-
peration ; but at last his three vessels
Avere captured, after Thurot himself Avas
killed, AA'ith three hundred of his men.
His shattered ships Avere tOAA-ed into a
port of the Isle of JMan. Testimonies to
the humanity and gallantry of this brave
officer are freely accorded by his enemies.

King George the Second died this year,
after a long and eventful reign. His
personal character and dispositions Avere
Avholiy immaterial to the course of events

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

in this kingdom. Although his English
subjects disliked him as a German, to
Ireland he was a thorough Englishman —
hound by his policy, as well as compelled
by his advisers, to maintain the “English
Interest,” in opposition to that of Ireland,
And this point was successfully and tri-
umphantly carried, at every period of
his reign, sometimes by strengthening
the Court party, sometimes by buying up
the “Patriots.” There had been (over
and above the usual suffering from po-
verty) two famines; also a considerable
emigration of Presbyterians from the
northern counties, to escape from the pay-
ment of tithes and from the disabilities
created by the Test Act. The population
of the island remained nearly stationary
during the whole reign. In 1726 it was
2,309,106, and in 1754 it was 2,372,634 —
an increase of little more than sixty thou-
sand in twenty-eight years.* The manu-
facture of woollen cloth had almost dis-
appeared, but in the eastern part of Ulster
the linen trade had taken a considerable
extension.

It is impossible to exaggerate, and hard
to conceive in all its horror, the misery
and degradation of the Catholic people,
throughout this whole period, although
active persecution ceased during the year
of the battle of Eontenoy and the Scottish
insurrection. On the whole, this was the
era of priest-hunting, of “discoveries,”
and of an universal plunder of such pro-
perty as remained in the hands of
Catholics. In this pitiful struggle the
wild humour of the race would sometimes
break out; and often desperate deeds
were done by beggared men. The story
of two of the Geoghegans of jMeath is so
characteristic of the time as to deserve a
place here. It is related by the author of
“ The Irish Abroad and at Home a very
desultory and chaotic, • but generally both
authentic and entertaining, work.

“ Seventy or eighty years ago, there re-
sided in Soho Square, London, an Irish
Roman Catholic gentleman, known among
his friends as ‘Geoghegan of London.’
Pretending to be, or being really, alarmed,
lest a relative (Mr Geoghegan, of James-
town) should conform to the Protestant
religion, and possess himself of a con-
siderable property, situate in Westmeath,
he resolved upon a proceeding to which
the reader Avill attach any epithet it may
seem to warrant.

“ He repaired to Dublin, reported him-
self to the necessary authorities, and pro-

* There was no census taken in either of th.ose
years. The estimates of the population given in
Thom’s Directory are founded upon such returns,
parochial registers, and the like, as were accessible.

fessed, in all its required legal forms, the
Protestant religion on a Sunday, sold his
estates on Monday, and relapsed into
Popery on Tuesday.

“ He did hot effect these changes unos-
tentatiously ; for ‘ He saw no reason for
mauvaisehonte’ SL^ he called it. He express-
ed admiration of the same principle of con-
venient apostasy tvhich governed Henri
IV.’s acceptance of the Erench crown.
‘ Paris vaut bien une messe,’ said that gay,
chivalrous, but somewhat unscrupulous
monarch. Thus, when asked the motive
of his abjuration of Catholicism, Geo-
ghegan replied : ‘ I would rather trust my
soul to God for a day, than my property
to the fiend for ever.’

“ This someAvhat impious speech was in
keeping with his conduct at Christ- Church
when he made his religious profession :
the sacramental wine being presented to
him, he drank off the entire contents of
the cup. The officiating clergyman re-
buked his indecorum. ‘ You need not
grudge it me,’ said the neophyte : ‘ it’s
the dearest glass of wine I ever drank.’

“ In the afternoon of the same day he
entered the Globe Coffee Room, Essex
Street, then frequented by the most re-
spectable of the citizens of Dublin. The
room was crowded. Putting his hand to
his sword, and throwing a glance of de-
fiance around, Geoghegan said, —

“‘I have read my recantation to-day,
and any man who says I did right is a
rascal.’

“ A Protestant with whom he was con-
versing the moment before he left home
to read his recantation, said to him :
‘For all your assumed Protestantism,
Geoghegan, you will die a Papist.’

“‘Ei done, mon ami!’ replied he.
‘That is the last thing of which I am
capable.’

“ One more specimen of the operation
of the penal laws may be given.

“Mr. Geoghegan had a relative, Mr.
Kedagh Geoghegan, of Donower, in the
County of Westmeath, who, though re-
maining faithful to the creed of his fore-
fathers, enjoyed the esteem and respect of
the Protestant resident gentry of his
county. Notwithstanding that his pro-
fession of the Roman Catholic religion
precluded his performing the functions
of a grand juror, he attended the assizes
at Mullingar regularly, in common with
other gentlemen of Westmeath, and dined
with the grand jurors.

“ On one of those occasions, a Mr.
Stepney, a man of considerable fortune in
the county, approached him and remark-
ed : ‘ Geoghegan, that is a capital team to
your carriage. I have rarely seen four finer

84

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

horses — not better matched. Here, Geo-
gliegan, are twenty pounds,’ tendering
him a sum of money in gold. ‘ You un-
derstand me. They are mine.’ And he
moved towards the door, apparently with
the intention of taking possession of his
purchase. The horses, not yet detached
from Mr. Geoghegan’s carriage, were still
in tlie 3'ard of the inn close by.

“‘hlold. Stepney!’ said Geoghegan.
‘Wait one moment. I shall not be ab-
sent more than that time.’ He then quitted
the room abruptly, and was seen running
in great haste towards the inn at which
he always put up.

“There was something in the scene
which had just occurred which shocked
the feelings of the witnesses of it, and
something in the manner of Geoghegan,
that produced among them a dead silence
and a conviction that it was not to end
there. Not a word was yet spoken, when
the report of four pistol shots struck their
ears, and in a feAv seconds afterwards
Geoghegan was perceived coming from
the direction of the inn, laden with fire-
arms. He mounted to the room in which
the party were assembled, holding by
their barrels a brace of pistols in each
hand. Walking directly up to Stepney,
he said : ‘ Stepney, you cannot have the
horses for which you bid just now.’

“ ‘ I can, and will have them.’

“ ‘You can’t. I have shot them ; and
Stepney, unless you be as great a coward
as you are a scoundrel, I will do my best
to shoot you. Here, choose your weapon,
and take your ground. Gentlemen, open
if you please, and see fair play.’

“ He then advanced upon Stepney,
offering him the choice of either pair of
pistols. Stepney, however, declined the
combat and quitted the room, leaving
Geoghegan the object of the unanimous
condolements of the rest of the party, and
overwhelmed with their expressions of
sympathy and of regret for the per-
version of the law of which Mr. Step-
ney had just sought to make him the
object.

“ In tendering twenty pounds for horses
that were worth twenty times that sum.
Stepney was only availing himself of one
of the enactments of the Penal Code,
which forbade a Papist the possession of
ahorse of greater value than five pounds.

“Notwithstanding this incident, oldKe-
dagh Geoghegan continued to visit Mul-
lingar during the assizes for many years
afterwards ; but to avoid a similar out-
rage, and to keep in recollection the cruel
nature of the Popery laws, his cattle
thenceforward consisted of four oxen.”

Another and a graver illustration of the

general condition of the Catholics is the
“Petition and Kemonstrance ” addressed
to King George II. by some members of
that body. It is found at length in Dr.
Curry’s excellent collection, and although
it presents no new facts in addition to
those already mentioned in the narration,
it is interesting as an example of the tone
and attitude which Catholics then thought
it necessary to assume in addressing their
master.

TO THE king’s most EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
The humble Petition and Remonstrance of
the Roman Catholics of Ireland.

Most Gracious Sovereign: — We, your
majesty’s dutiful and faithful subjects,
the Eoman Catholics of the kingdom of
Ireland, beg leave to lay at your majesty’s
feet this humble remonstrance of some
of those grievances and restraints under
which we have long laboured without
murmuring or complaint ; and we pre-
sume to make this submissive application,
from a sense of your majesty’s great and
universal clemency, of your gracious and
merciful regard to tender consciences, and
from a consciousness of our own loyalty,
affection, and gratitude to your majesty’s
person and government, as duties incum-
bent upon us, which it is our unalterable
resolution to pay in all events during the
remainder of our lives.

And we are the more emboldened to
present this our humble remonstrance,
because it appeareth unto us, that the
laws by wliich such grievences are occa-
sioned, and such penalties inflicted upon
us, have taken rise rather from private
views of expedienc}’^ and self-interest, or
from mistaken jealousies and mistrusts,
than from any truly public-spirited mo-
tives ; inasmuch as they seemed to have
infringed certain privileges, rights, and
immunities, which had been freely and
solemnly granted, together with a promise
of further favour and indulgence to the
Roman Catlu lies of Ireland, upon the most
valuable considerations. For we most
humbly offer to your majesty’s just and
generous consideration, that on the 3rd day
of October, 1691, the Eoman Catholic no-
bility and gentry of this kingdom, under
the late King James, entered into articles
of capitulation at Limerick, whereby,
among other things, it was stipulated
and agreed, that “the Eoman Catholics
of Ireland should enjoy such privilege in
the exercise of their religion as they did
enjoy in the Reign of King Charles II.
and that their majesties, as soon as their
affairs would permit them, would summon
a parliament in Ireland, and endeavour to
procure the said Eoman Catholics such

HISTOKY OF IRELAND.

85

further security in that particular, as
might preserve them from any disturb-
ance on account of their said religion.”
Whereupon these noblemen and gentlemen
laid down their arms, and immediately
submitted to their majesties’ government ;
at the same time that they had offers of
powerful assistance from France, which
might, if accepted, have greatly obstruc-
ted the success of their majesties’ arms in
the war then carrying on abroad against
that kingdom.

And although these articles were duly
ratified and confirmed, first by the com-
mander-in-chief of their majesties’ forces
in Ireland, in conjunction witii the then
lords justices thereof, and afterwards by
an Act of the Irish parliament, in the
ninth year of his majesty King Wil-
liam’s reign, by which they became
the public faith of the nation, plighted
and engaged to these people in as
full, firm, and solemn manner, as
ever public faith was plighted to any
people; yet so far were the Koman
Catholics of Ireland from receiving the
just benefits thereof ; so far from seeing
any steps taken, or means used in the Irish
parliament, to procure them such promised
security, as might preserve them from any
disturbance on account of their religion,
that, on the contrary, several laws have
been since enacted in that parliament, by
which the exercise of their religion is
made penal, and themselves and their
heirs forever have forfeited those rights
and immunities, and titles to their estates
and properties, which in the reign of
King Charles II. they Avere by laAv en-
titled to, and enjoyed in common Avith the
rest of their felloAA^-subjects,

And such is the evil tendency of these
laAvs to create jealousy and disgust be-
tween parents and their children, and
especially to stifie in the breasts of the
latter those pious sentiments of filial duty
and obedience Avhich reason dictates, good
policy requires, and Avhich the Almighty
so strictly enjoins, that in virtue of them,
a son, hoAvever undutiful or profligate in
other respects, shall merely by the merit
of conforming to the established religion,
not only deprive the Koman Catholic
father of that free and full possession of
his estate, that jjOAA'er to mortgage or
otherAAuse dispose of it, as the exigencies
of his affairs may require, but also shall
himself have full liberty to mortgage,
sell, or otherwise alienate that estate from
his family for ever ; a liberty, most gra-
cious sovereign, the frequent use of
which has entailed poA^erty and despair
on some of the most ancient and opulent
families in this kingdom, and brought

many a parent’s grey hairs Avith sorroAV
to the grave.

And although A'ery feAV estates at present
remain in the hands of the Koman
Catholics of Ireland, and therefore little
or no matter appears to be left for these
laAvs to operate upon, nevertheless, Ave are
so far from being secure in the possession
of personal property, so far from being
preserved from any disturbance on ac-
count of our religion, even in that respect,
that ncAV and forced constructions have
been of late years put upon these laAvs
(for Ave cannot think that such construc-
tions AA'ere ever originally intended), by
Avhich, on the sole account of our religion,
Ave are, in many cases, stripped of that
personal property by discoverers and in-
formers; a set of men, most gracious
soA'ereign, once generally and justly des-
pised amongst us, but of late groA\m into
some repute, by the increase of their
numbers, and by the frequency, encourage-
ment, and success of their practices.

These and many other cruel restrictions
(such as no Christian people under heaven
but ourselves are made liable to) are, and
have long been, greatly detrimental, not
only to us in particular, but also to the
commerce, culture, and every other im-
provement of this kingdom in general ;
and AAdiat is surely a melancholy con-
sideration, are chiefly beneficial to the
discoverers and informers before men-
tioned ; Avho, under colour of these laAvs,
plunder indiscriminately, parents, breth-
ren, kinsmen, and friends, in despite of
all the ties of blood, of affection and con-
fidence, in breach of the divine laAvs, of
all former human laAvs, enacted in this or
perhaps in any other kingdom, for the
security of property, since the creation of
the Avorld.

The necessity of continuing laAvs in
their full force for so great a number of
years, Avhich are attended Avith such
shameful and pernicious consequences,
ought, Ave humbly conceive, to be ex-
tremely manifest, pressing, and perman-
ent ; but so far is this from being the case
Avith respect to these disqualifying laAvs,
that eAmn the pretended grounds for those
jealousies and mistrusts, Avhich are said
to have given birth to them, have long
since disappeared ; it being a Avell-knoAvn
and undeniable truth, that your majesty’s
distressed, but faithful subjects, the Ko-
man Catholics of Ireland, have neither the
inclination nor the poAA’cr to disturb your
majesty’s government ; nor can (Ave
humbly presume) that only pretext uoav
left for continuing them in force, viz. their
tendency to make proselytes to the estab-
lished religion, in any degree justify the

86

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

manifold severities and injuries occasioned
by them. For, alas ! most gracious sove-
reign, there is but too much reason to
believe, that proselytes so made are, for
the most part, such in appearance only in
order to become in reality, what all sincere
Christians condemn and detest, undutiful
children, unnatural brethren, or perfidious
friends ; and we submit it to your ma-
jesty’s great wisdom and goodness^
whether motives so reinignant to the
public interest, and to all social, moral,
and religious duties, are fit to be confided
in or longer encouraged.

And because we are sensible, most gra-
cious sovereign, that our professions of
loyalty have been often cruelly misrepre-
sented, even by those who were thoroughly
acquainted with the candour and upright-
ness of our dealings in all other respects,
we must humbly offer it to your princely
and generous consideration, that we rest
not the proof of our sincerity in such pro-
fessions or words, but on things known
and attested by all the Avorld, on
our dutiful, peaceable, and submissive
behaviour under such pressures, for
more than half a century ; a conduct,
may it please your majesty, that clearly
evinces the reality of that religious prin-
ciple, which withholds us from sacrificing
conscience or honour to any worldly in-
terest whatever ; since rathei than violate
either by hypocritical professions, we
have all our lives, patiently suffered so
many restrictions and losses in our tem-
poral concerns ; and we most submissively
beseech your majesty to look down on
such trials of our integrity, not only as
a proof of our sincerity in this declaration,
but also as an earnest and surety for our
future good behaviour ; and to give us
leave to indulge the pleasing hope, that
the continuance of that behaviour, en-
forced by our religious principles, and of
your majesty’s great and inherent good-
ness towards us, which it will be the
business of our lives to endeavour to
merit, may at length be the happy means
of our deliverance from some part of that
burden, Avhich we have so long and so
patiently endured.

That this act of truly royal commiser-
ation, beneficence and justice, may be
added to y^our majesty’s many other
lieroic virtues, and that such our de-
liverance may be one of those distin-
guished blessings of your reign, which
shall transmit its memory to the love,
gratitude, and veneration of our latest
posterity', is the humble x^rayer of, &c.

cated, says Dr. Curry, “ to the Right
Reverend Dr. Stone, and was approved
of by his Grace, and by as many of his
discerning and confidential friends as he
thought proper to shoAv it to, as he him-
self assured Lord Taaffe.” But in tliis
case, also, the Catholics themselves did
not agree as to the proper steps to be
taken ; and the death of the Primate,
shortly after, seems to have put an end
to all proceedings upon it. This odious
Primate in the last years of his life, be-
came quite friendly to the Catholics. Tne
“English interests” in Ireland needed
some sui)port against the “Patriots,” AA’ho
set up the dangerous pretension to vindi-
cate the national independence of the
colony ; and the Government already be-
gan to rely upon the Catholics as a
means and agent of perxietuating British
domination.

As for the condition of the country
peoxfie, it continued to be very miserable.
A feAv of the queries contained in Bishop
Berkeley’s “Querist” Avill sufficiently
describe their case. He asks : —

“Whether there be upon earth any
Christian or civilized people so beggarly^
wretched, and destitute, as the common
Irish?” — “ Whether, nevertheless, there
is any other people Avhose wants may’- be
more easily^ sux)plied from home ?” —
“ Whether, if there was a wall of brass a
thousand cubits high round this kingdom,
our natives might not, nevertheless, live
cleanly' and comfortably', till the land, and
reap the fruits of it?” — “Whether a
foreigner could imagine that one-half of
the Avere starving, in a country

Avhich sent out such xfienty of provisions ?”
— “ Whether it is x^os^sible the country
should be Avell improved AA'hile our beef is
exxAorted and our labourers liA'e upon
X^otatoes ?” — “ Whether trade be not then
on a right foot AA'hen foreign commodities
are imported only in exchange for
domestic superfluities?” — “Whether the
quantities of beef, butter, avooI, and
leather exported from this island can be
reckoned the superfluities of a country',
Avhere there are so many' nati\'es naked
and famished ?” From these queries it is
evident enough that the good and just-
minded bishop traced the Avretchedness of
his countrymen to its true cause, namely',
the settled determination of England to
regulate all the industry of Ireland for
her OAvn use and profit : AA'hich, indeed, has
continued to be the one great x^ague of
the country from that day to this.

This A'ery humble petition aa'us neA'er
presented to the king. It aa'us communi-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

87

CHAPTER XIII.

1760—1762.

Georpc III. — Speech from the Throne. — “Tolera-
tion.”— France and England in India. — Tally’s
Campaign there. — State of Ireland. — The Revenue.
Distress of trade. — Distress in the country. — Op-
pression of the Farmers. — Whiteboys. — Riots. —
“A Popish Conspii'acy.”' — Steel-Boys and Oak-
Boys. — Emigration from Ulster. — Halifax, Vice-
roy.— Flood and the Patriots. — Extravagance and
Corruption. — Agitation for Septennial Parlia-
ments.

King George the Third mounted the
throne of England in October, 17G0, at
twenty-two years of age. He was grand-
son to the late king, being the son of the
Prince of Wales, Erederick Louis, whom
the old king very cordially hated. The
mother of George III. was a German prin-
cess of the House of Saxe Gotha — a
family which has since cost dear to the
three kingdoms ; and a year after his ac-
cession, he married another German prin-
cess, of the House of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz. But the new king himself was
born in England ; a circumstance which
greatly rejoiced the English of that day.
He had been educated for a time in the
choicest Whig principles by his father ;
Rii 1, as an English historian informs us,
‘‘ great and incessant pains were taken to
infuse into the mind of ‘ the Second Hope
of Britain ’ just and elevated sentiments
of government and of civil and religio’js
liberty.”* But after the death of Prince
Erederick Louis, his mother, the Princess
Lowager of Wales, gave quite anew direc-
tion to the education of her son ; and
under the guidance of the afterwards
■celebrated Lord Bute, brought him up in
the highest and choicest doctrines of
Toryism and Prerogative. He certainly
profited by both those systems of tuition,
and united in his conduct upon the throne

* In an occasional Address, or Prologue, spoken
by Prince George, on acting a part in the tragedy
■of Cato, performed at Leicester House about the
year 1749, he was instructed thus to express him-
self,—

“ The poet’s labours elevate the mind,

Teach our young hearts with generous fire to burn.
And feel the virtuous sentiments we learn.

T’ attain those glorious ends, what play so fit
As that where all the powers of human wit
Combine to dignify great Cato’s name.

To deck his tomb and consecrate his fame ?
Where Liberty — 0 name for ever dear!

Breathes forth in every line, and bids us fear
Nor pains nor death to guard our sacred laws.

But bravely perish in our country’s cause.

Should this suiierior to my years be thought.
Know 'tis the first great lesson I was taught."
Liberty’, in the language of that day’, meant the
Protestant interest, and Protestant ascendency in
Church and State.

all the corruption and cant of Whiggery
with whatever i? most coarsely tyran-
nical, dogged, blind, and imperious in
Toryism.

When he came to the throne and met
Parliament for the first time, Mr Pitt was
still prime minister ; and we accordingly
find the Whiggish element to prevail in
the famous royal speech delivered on that
occasion. His first Avords took the heart
of the nation by storm: — “Born and
educated in this country, I glory in the
name of Briton.” But one can Avell
imagine what bitter reflections passed
through the mind of an educated Irish
Catholic, like Charles O’Conor, or Curry,
as he read the remaining sentences of the
discourse. “ The civil and religious
rights ” said the king, “ of my loyfing
subjects are equally dear to me Avith the
most valuable prerogatives of the croAvn.”
It Avas his inviolable resolution, he said,
“ to adhere to and strengthen this ex-
cellent Constitution in Church and State.”
“ It Avas his fixed purpose ” he declared,
“ to countenance and encourage the
practice of true religion and virtue ” —
Avhich fixed purpose of course bound him
to discourage and to punish all false re-
ligions. Einally, he exclaimed to his
Parliament : “ The eyes of all Europe are
upon you. Erom you the Protestant In-
terest hopes for protection, as Avell as all
our friends for the preservation of their
independency. * * * In this expecta-

tion I am the more encouraged by a
pleasing circumstance Avhich I look upon
as one of the most auspicious omens of my
reign— that happy extinction of divisions,
and that union and good harmony Avhich
continue to prevail amongst my subjects
afford me the most agreeable prospect.”
His Majesty also was pleased to say
“ that he Avould maintain the toleration in-
AHolable.”

The “ toleration ” here spoken of, in so
far as it included Irish Papists, meant
simple connivance at Catholic Avorship, so
long as that Avas practised very quietly,
in obscure places. It did not mean ex-
emption or relief from any one of the
disabilities or penalties Avhich had abolished
the civil existence of Catholics ; it did not
mean that they could be educated, either
at home or abroad ; nor that they could
possess arms, or horses, or farms on a
longer lease than thirty-one years ; nor
that they could sit in Parliament, or
municipal councils, or parish vestries, or
in any way participate in the voting away
of their OAvn money. It did not mean
that their clergy could receive orders in
Ireland, or go abroad to receive them with-
out incurring the penalty of transportation,

88

IIISTOKY OF lEELAKD.

and, if they returned, death nor that Ca-
tholics could practise law or medicine, or
sit on juries, or be guardians to their own
children, or lend money on mortgage (if
they earned any money), or go to a foreign
country, or have any of the rights of hu-
man beings in their own. By the conni-
vance of the government, they were per-
mitted to breathe, and to go to mass, and
to do almost nothing else, except live by
their labour and pay taxes and penal fines.
Such is the precise limitation of that
“ toleration,” which King George said
would be inviolably maintained : and it
was inviolably maintained during the
first thirty-three years of this reign with
certain trifling alleviations which are to
be mentioned in their proper place.

The accession of King George III. took
place at an auspicious and i)roperous time,
for England, though not for Ireland. The
war was proceeding favourably to Great
Britain in all parts of the earth and sea ;
and it was in this year, 1 7 60, and the f oIIoav-
ing year that the great struggle between
Erance and England for the colonial em-
pire of India came to a crisis and was de-
cided against Erance, and therefore dis-
astrously for Ireland. The war in India
would not here much concern us but for
its connection with the sad fate of Count
Tally. He was now a lieutenant-general
in the Erench armies, and jM. de Voltaire
informs us that it was his well-known
hatred of the English which caused him
to be selectedfor the honour of command-
ing the force which was to encounter them
on coast of the Coromandel. His regi-
ment, that had fought at Eontenoy, was
with him ; and one of the officers who
held high command under him was the
Chevalier Geoghegan.* He found every-
thing in disarray at Pondicherry, the
capital of the Erench possessions ; very
insutficient forces, but little provisions,
and no money at all. Voitaire says :
“ Kothwitstanding the gloomy views he
took of everything, he had at first some
happy success. He took from the Eng-
lish the fort St. David, some leagues
from Pondicherry and razed its walls
in April, 1758.” The same year he be-
sieged Madras, took the “ black town,”
but failed before the fortress. His
own correspondence, which is in part
given to us by Voltaire, attributes
this failure to monstrous peculation and
waste in the department for supplying
the army. Indeed, he seems to have very
soon come to the conclusion that nothing
effectual could be done ; that he was
abandoned to his fate, and that the
Erench power in Hindostan was doomed.

* Voltaire, /Steele de Louis XV.

Nothing can exceed the passionate out-
bursts of his grief and indignation in
some of these letters. “ Hell,” he says,
“has vomited me out upon this land of
iniquity ; and I am only awaiting, like
Jonah, for the whale that is to swallow
me.” Among his other troubles, the
troops mutined, and the revolt was ap-
peased with much trouble. Then con-
tinues Voltaire, “the General led them
into the province of Arcot, to recover
the fortress of Vandavachi, of which the
English had possessed themselves after
two ineffectual attempts ; in one of which
they had been completely defeated by the
Chevalier Geoghegan. Lally ventured to
attack them with inferior forces, and
would have conquered them if he had
been duly seconded. As it was, he only
gained in that expedition the honour of
having given a new proof of the deter-
mined courage which formed his leading
Aiaracteristic.” This is the battle known
to the English by the name of “ Wande-
wash.”

At length Lally was obliged to collect
all his troops in Pondicherry, resolved to
defend it to the last extremity ; it was
blockaded at once by land and sea. Here,
again, everything seemed to irritate his
impetuous temper ; he insulted the gover-
nor and all the council, and threatened
to harness them to his provision waggons,
if they did not provide horses. “ I had
rather,” he exclaims in one letter, “ go
and command Caffres, than stay in this
Sodom, which it is impossible but the fire
of the English must destroy sooner or
later, from want of fire from heaven.”
The siege was long and the defence des-
perate. Just at the moment that King
George III. ascended the throne, this
gallant and impetuous Count Lally was
holding his post with obstinate valour
against an English fleet and army. But
the people in Pondicherry were dying in
the streets of hunger, and the council of
the city was crying out to Lally to sur-
render. On the IGth of January, 1761,
he was unhapily obliged to yield ; and so
the Erench lost India in the east almost
on the same day that they lost Canada in
the west, by the surrender of IMontreal.
There was a delerium of joy in England,
and the heart of the Irish nation sank
low.*

* Unfortunate Lally had made many enemies,
chiefly by his furious temper. They were powerful
in France, while he was comparatively a stranger,
though born in the country. They accused him of
misconduct, tyranny, exactions, betraying the inter-
ests of the king. At length the outcry against him
became so strong, that he was arrested, confined in
the Bastile, kept there for fifteen months without
any specific charge, then brought to trial and kept
on trial two years ; finally, condemned and executed

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

80

Even the English colony in Ireland,
though it sympathized with British suc-
cesses, to which, indeed, it contributed
more than its share both in men and
in money (meaning the earnings of the
subject nation as well as its own), yet
had no reason, on the accession of this
king, to congratulate itself on its happy
and prosperous condition. In truth the
island had been well drained of its reven-
ues to meet the increased military ex-
penses of Great Britain ; and it had
become necessary within the past year
(1759) to raise a loan of £150,000, on
debentures at four per cent, transferable,
in order to pay the increasing arrears on
the imblic establishments. Certain duties
were granted to provide for the payment
of the interest ; and this may be considered
as the beginning of the funded debt of
Ireland. But in the beginning of 17G0,
the king having again considerably aug-
mented his military forces, Ireland was
required to raise another loan of £300,000,
and a vote of credit passed the Commons
for this object, but at five per cent. Then,
as it was found that the first loan of
£150,000 was not coming in at four per
cent., an additional one per cent, was
offered for that. Thus, when George III,
came to the throne, the revenues of Ire-
land were considerably embarrassed and
oppressed. Mr. Hely Hutchinson, a good
authority on this point, in his Avork on
tbe “commercial restrictions of Ireland,”
states, indeed, that “all Irishmen” felt
they ought to sustain the efforts of Great
Britain in that crisis, but that the states-
men of the latter country ahvays expected
too much; and Avhile they looked upon
the great prosperity and wealth of their
own country, had not sufficient considera-
tion for the poverty of Ireland. Two or
three sentences taken from this book (the
Commercial Restrictions) give a clear idea
of the financial condition of the island.
“The revenue had decreased in 1755, fell
lower in 1756, and still lower in 1757. In
the last year the vaunted prosperity of
Ireland was changed into misery and
distress, the lower classes of the people
wanted food.” Again — “ The public ex-
penses Avere greatly increased ; the
pensions on the civil-list, at Lady-day,
1759, amounted to £55,497 ; there Avas at
the same time a great augmentation of
military expense. Six new regiments and
a troop Avere raised in a very short space

Voltaire, who has uniformly praised Lally, defends
him in his Louis XV.; and afterwards generously
vindicated his memory, and aided his son to pro-
cure the decree of the parliament rehabilitating the
name of this brave and “murdered” man. Louis
XV’. himself, after the death of Lally, exclaimed : —
“ They have assassinated him.”

of time.” From all these causes the
author states that the payment out of the
treasury in little more tlian one year Avas
£703,957. “ The effects,” he continues,

“ of these exactions Avere immediately and
severely felt by the kingdom. These
loans could not be supplied by a poor
country Avithout draining the bankers of
their cash ; three of the principal houses
(Clements, Dawsons, and Mitchell) among
them, stopped payment ; the three remain-
ing banks in Dublin discounted no i)aper,
and in fact did no business. Public and
private credit that had been drooping since
the year 1754, had noAV fallen prostrate.
At a general meeting of the merchants of
Dublin in April, 1760, Avith several mem-
bers of the House of Commons, the
inability of the former to carry on busi-
ness Avas univ'ersally acknoAvledged,” &c.

The scarcity of money noAv employed in
trade or improvements, together Avith the
laAvs Avhich made it impossible for
Catholics to exercise any lucrative in-
dustry in coriAorate toAvns, caused more
and more of the people to be dependent
upon agriculture and sheep-farming alone.
But the lot of these poor agriculturists
Avas hard, for the landed proprietors under
Avhom they had to live, were an alien and
hostile race, having no sympathy Avith the
humble people around them. This lamen-
table circumstance is peculiar to Ireland.
Neither in England nor in Scotland Avas
the case of the peasantry ever rendered
bitterer tlian poverty makes it at any rate,
by differences of race and of religion. In
Ireland they found themselves face to face,
not tAvo classes, but tAvo nations ; of Avhich
the one had substantially the power of
life and death over the other. When we
add to this that one of these tAvo nations
had despoiled the other of those A^ery
lands Avhich the plundered race Avere noAv
glad to cultivate as rackrented tenants ;
and also that the dominant nation felt
bound to hate the other, both as “ rebels ”
Avho needed only the opportunity to rise
and cut their masters’ throats, and as
Papists Avho clung to the “damnable
idolatry ” of the mass, Ave can easily
understand the difficulty of the “ land-
lord and tenant question” in Ireland.
We have noAv, in fact, arrived at the era
of the “ Whiteboy ” organization, Avhich
Avas itself the legitimate offspring of the
Rapparees, and Avhich in its turn has giA-en
birth to “Ribbonism,” to the “Terry
Alts,” and finally to the “Fenians.”
The principle and meaning of all these
various forms of secret Irish organiza-
tion has been the same at all times, namely,
the instinct of resistance to legal opj)res-
sion by illegal combinations among the

90

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

oppressed. And this has been inevitable,
and far from blamable, under the circum-
stances of the country. All the laws
were made not for, but against the great
mass of the people ; the courts of justice
were entirely in the possession of the op-
pressors ; the proscribed race saw only
mortal enemies on the bench, enemies in
the jury-box, enemies everywhere all
around, and were continually made to feel
that law and justice were not for them.
This of course, in times of distress, threw
them back upon the only resource of des-
l)erate men, conspiracy, intimidation, and
vengeance.

We have seen by the statements of Mr
J. Hely Hutchinson, that in the last year
of King George II. “ the lower classes of
the people wanted food.” The financial
distress soon made matters still worse,
and almost immediately after the ac-
cession of the new king, the whole island
began to be startled by formidable
rumours of disturbances and tumults in
the south. The immediate cause of the
first breaking out of these disorders was
that many landlords in Munster began to
inclose commons, on which their rack-
rented tenants had, up to that time, en-
joyed the right of commonage as some com -
])ensation for the extreme severity of the
terms on Avhich they held their farms.
The inclosure of these commons took away
from them the only means they had of
lightening their burden and making their
hard tenure supportable. In Waterford,
in Cork, and in Tipperary, angry crowds
assembled, tore down the inclosures, and
sometimes maltreated the workmen em-
ployed in putting them up. The ag-
grieved peasantry soon combined their
operations, associated together by secret
oaths, and these confederates began to
be knoAvn as Whiteboys. A second cause
for the discontents, which soon swelled
the society of Whiteboys, was the cruel
exactions of the tithe proctors — persons
who farmed the tithes of a parish rector,
and then screwed the utmost farthing
<Hit of the parishoners, often selling out
their crops, their stock, even their beds,
to make up the subsidy for clergymen
whose ministrations they never attended.
Kesistance, therefore, to tithes, and the
occasional amputation of a tithe proctor’s
ears, formed a large part of the i)roceed-
ings of the Whiteboys.*

* See Dr. Cinry’s Review. He was a contempo-
rary. See also Artlmr Young’s “ Tour in Ireland.”
Young was one of the most observant of travellers,
and has examined this whole subject in a very fair
spirit. He thus speaks of the state of the people
under their landlords: — “The execution of the law
lies very much in the hands of justices of the i)eace,
many of whom are drawn from the most illiberal

The riots of these few forlorn men, were
soon construed into a general Popish con-
spiratyTigainst the Government; because,
indeed, the greatest part of them were Pa-
pists, at least in name; although it was well
known that several Protestant gentlemen
and magistrates of considerable influence
in that province, did all along, for their
own private ends, connive at, if not foment,
these tumults, and although we were
assured by authority, “that the authors
of these riots consisted indiscriminately
of persons of different persuasions, and
that no marks of disaffection to his
majesty’s person or government appeared
in any of these people.” This was
officially published in the London Gazette.

This authentic declaration was ground-
ed on the report wliich had been made to
Government by persons of admitted
loyalty and eminence in the law, sent
down and commissioned some time before
to inquire upon the spot into the real
causes and circumstances of these riots ;
Avhich report was afterwards confirmed by
the going judges of assize, and by the
dying protestations of the first five of
these unhappy men, who were executed
ill 17G2 at Waterford, for having been
present at the burning down of a cabin,
upon the information of one of their
associates, ivlio was the very person that
with his own hand set fire to it. Tliese
men immediately before their execution,
publicly declared and took God to witness,
“ that in all these tumults it never did
enter into their thoughts to do any thing
against the Government.”

A considerable force of regular troops
was sent to the south ; some savage mili-
tary execution done ; which was again
followed by fresh outrages ; and the dis-
order continued unabated for several
years.

About the same time when Whiteboys
first began to be heard of, various other
secret societies sprang up in Ulster.
These associations called themselves vari-

class in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a com-
plaint against a gentleman, or anj’animalthat chooses
to call itself a gentleman, and the justice issues out
a summons for his appearance, it is a fixed affront,
and he n ill infallibly be called out. Where manners
are in conspiracy against law, to -whom are the op-
pressed people to have recourse ? They know then-
situation too well to thiidv of it ; they can have no
defence but the means of protection from one gentle-
man against another, who probably protects his
vas.«al as he would the sheep he intends to eat.

“ The colours of this picture are not charged. To
assert that all these cases are common, would be
an exaggeration ; but to say that an unfeeling
landlord will do all this with impunity, is to keep
strictly to truth ; and what is liberty but a farce
and a jest, if its blessings am received as the favour
of kindness and humanity, instead of being the in-
heritance of RIGHT?” — Young's Tour, Dub. Edit.,
vol. ii., pp. 40, 41

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

91

ously Hearts-of-Steel, Oak -Boys, and
Peep-of-Day Boys ; but their members
were all Protestants ; and their grievances
and objects were in part connected Avith
landlord oppression and clerical exaction,
partly with the alleged injustice of the
emploj’ers of manufacturing labour.
These latter disturbances were soon OA^er,
because first the grievances were not so
deep-seated, and next because the parties
on the two sides being mainly of the same
race and religion, the enmity and exas-
peration Avere never so fierce, and A'/ere
far more easily appeased. While all these
last-named conspiracies speedily dis-
appeared, Whiteboyism remained, and
under one form or another must remain
till English domination in Ireland shall
be abolished: The honest English tourist,
Mr Young, makes some reflections on these
societies Avhich show a most remarkable
spirit of fairness, for an Englishman
writing about Ireland : —

“ Consequences have floAved from these
oppressions Avhich ought long ago to have
put a stop to them. In England Ave have
heard much of Whiteboys, Steel-Boys,
Oak-Boys, Peep-of-Day-Boys, etc. But
these various insurgents are not to be con-
founded, for they are A'ery different.
The proper distinction in the discontents
of the people is into Protestant and Cath-
olic. All but the Whiteboys are among
the manufacturing Protestants in the
north : the Whiteboys, Catholic labourers
in the south. From the best intelligence
I could gain, the riots of the manufac-
turers had no other foundation, but such
variations in the manufacture as all
fabrics experience, and Avdiich they had
themselves knoAvn and submitted to before.
The case, hoAvever, AA'as different AAuth the
Whiteboys, who being labouring Catholics
met Avith all those oppressions I have de-
scribed, and would jtrobably have con-
tinued in full submission had not very
severe treatment in respect of tithes,
united Avith a great speculative rise of
rents about the same time, bloAvm up the
flame of resistance ; the atrocious acts
they Avere guilty of made them the object
of general indignation ; acts Avere passed
for their pnnishment, AAdiich seemed cal-
culated for the meridian of Barbary ; this
arose to such a height, that by one they
Avere to be hanged under circumstances
Avithout the common formalities of a
trial, which though repealed by the folloAv-
ing session marks the spirit of punish-
ment ; Avhile others remain yet the law of
the land, that Avould, if executed, tend
more to raise than quell an insurrection.
From all Avhich it is manifest that the
gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a

radical cure, from overlooking the real
cause of disease, A\diich in fact lay in
themselves, and not in the Avretches tliey
doomed to the galloAvs. Let them change
their own conduct entirely, and the poor
Avill not long riot. Treat them like
men avIio onght to be as free as your-
selves : put an end to that system of
religious persecution Avhich for seventy
years has divided the kingdom against
itself ; in these two circumstances lies the
cure of insurrection, perform them com-
pletely, and you Avill have an affectionate
poor, instead of oppressed and discontented
vassals.”

It Avill be seen in the sequel hoAv little
chance these indignant and Avell-meant
remonstrances had of meeting with atten-
tion.

The troubles in Ulster, though they
Avere quite unconnected Avith Whiteboyism
— and though a Catholic Avould no more
have been admitted into a Heart-of- Steel
lodge than into a vestry meeting— AA^ereyet
produced by hardship and oppression.
The Presbyterians of the north Avere noAv,
as Avell as the Catholics, suffering not only
by the Test Act and the tithes, but also by
the difficulty of earning an honest liveli-
hood, OAving to the scarcity of money and
the heavy taxation to meet the demands
of Government. Emigration to America,
therefore, continued from the northern
seaports ; and many active and energetic
families Avere every season seeking a iieAv
home beyond the Atlantic. It Avas noAv
that the fathers of AndreAV Jackson, of
John C. Calhoun, of James Buchanan,
and other eminent American statesmen,
established themselves in various parts of
the colonies. These exiles Avere the men
Avho formed the “ Penny slvania Line ” in
the revolutionary Avar, and had the satis-
faction of contributing poAverfully to
destroy in America tliat relentless British
domination Avhich had made their Irish
homes untenable. While the exiled
Catholics on the European continent
Avere eager to encounter the English
poAver upon any field, those other Protes-
tant exiles in America were ardently en-
gaged in the task of uprooting it in that
hemisphere. Yet it is a strange and sad
reflection, that although their cause and
their grievances, Avhile at home, Avhere
very similar, if not identical, they never
could bring themselves to combine to-
gether there against their common enemy
and oppressor. It must be stated, hoAV-
ever, Avithout hesitation, that this Avas
exclusiA^ely the fault of the Protestant dis-
senters. They hated Popery and Papists
even more intensely than did the English
colonists of the Anglican church: they had

92

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

submitted, almost gladly, to disabilities
themselves, because they knew that the
Catholics were subjected to still worse,
and they were unwilling, by a too factious
resistance on their part, to embarrass a
system of policy Avhich they were assured
Avas needful to the great cause of Protes-
tant ascendency. They might suffer
themselves, but they could not make com-
mon cause with the common enem3^ Por
this mean compliance and perverse bigotry
they had their reward: they Avere now
flying in croAvds from a fair and fertile
land AA’^hich they might have held and en-
joyed for CA^er, if they had united their
cause Avith those Avho Avere enduring the
same oppressions from the same tyrants.

This may be taken as completing the
picture of the social and industrial condi-
tion of Ireland in the first year of the
reign of George III. It is time to return
to the political struggle of the English
colony.

The Duke of Bedford, Avho had been on
the Avhole nearly as popular a viceroy as
Lord Chesterfield, Avas recalled in 1761,
and succeeded by Lord Halifax. A neAv
Parliament Avas smnmoned, as usual for
the neAv reign, and on this occasion Dr.
Lucas, Avho had returned from his exile,
AA’as returned as one of the members for
Dublin city. Several other ncAv members
of great promise Avith “ patriotic ” aspira-
tions, also came to this Parliament ;
amongst Avhom appeared, for the first time
in public life, the celebrated Henry Flood,
as member for Kilkenny. This eminent
man took rank very soon as an Irish
patriot, but at first his patiotism Avas
strictly colonial, that is to say, all his
care Avas for the English Protestant inhabi-
tants of the island. And Avhen the groAving
poAA^er and rising spirit of the colonists
soon after aspired to and achieved a na-
tional independence, the nationalty he
asserted Avas still strictly and exclusAely
Protestant. Flood Avas the son of a
former chief justice, and all his re-
latives and connections Avere of the
highest Protestant ascendency. Yet,
according to his OAvn narroAV ideas, it can-
not to be denied that Flood Avas a patriot:
that is to say a determined assertor of the
sovereign right of the Irish Parliament
against the domination of Great Britain.
Tavo other members of the Patriot party
appeared in that Parliament, Mr. Denis
Daly and Mr. Hussey Burgh.

In January, 1702, Mr. Hamilton, secre-
tary to Lord Halifax, communicated to
the Commons the rupture Avith Spain. It
is not essential to the history of Ireland
to follow the course of English diplomatic
and military proceedings on the Continent.

All those transactions Avere decided on and
prosecuted Avithout the slightest reference
to the interest either of the Irish nation
or of the British colony ; Ireland’s only
concern Avith England’s Avars being in the
continual demands for money and men.
Accordingly an immedite augmentation
of five battalions Avas noAv required by
Government, together Avith a vote of credit
for raising another half-million sterling.
An address Avas also presented by the
Commons to the lord-lieutenant, to be by
him transmitted to the croAvn, praying to
have the salary of that official raised to
<£16,000 a year. Primate Stone Avas still
influential in the Irish government, as Avell
as the former “Patriot,” but now pen-
sioner and placeman, Boyle, earl of
Shannon. The extravagance of Govern-
ment in eA’-ery department, the recklees-
ness Avith Avhich the people Avere loaded
Avith taxation, and the immense system
of bribery resorted to by the administra-
tion in order to break doAvn opposition and
purehase assured majorities in Parlia-
ment, coiiAunced Lucas and his friends that
there could be no beginning of redress or
remedy for these evils until the Parlia-
ment should be made more immediately
responsible to the people. In England
“ Septennial Parliaments” had been the
laAv and the practice for some time, but
in Ireland each Parliament Avas still
elected for the life of the king. The
agitation for this measure of septennial
elections occupied the Patriotic party for
several years.

CHAPTER XIV.

1762—1768.

Tory Ministiy. — Failures of the Patriots. — North-
umberland, Viceroy. — Mr. Fitzgerald's speech on
pension-list. — Mr. Perry’s address on the same
subject. — Effort for mitigation of the Penal Laws.
— Mr. Mason’s argument for allowing Papists to-
take mortgages. — Rejected. — Death of Stone and
Earl of Shannon. — Lord Hartford, Viceroy. —
Lucas and the Patriots. — Their coniinued failures.
— Increase of the National Debt. — Townshend,
Viceroy. — New system. — The “ Undertakers”.—
Septennial Bill changed into Octennial. — And
passed. — Joy of the People. — Consequences of
this measure. — Ireland still “ standing on her
smaller end.” — Newspapers of Dublin.— Grattan.

The government of Lord Halifax ended
AA'ith the session of 1762. This year is
considered an eventful one in British
annals. Mr. Pitt, and afterAvards the
Duke of XeAvcastle, retired from the
administration, Avhich came entirely inte
the hands of Lord Bute, a Tory, as high

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

93

and violent as it was possible to be,
without absolute Jacobitism ; whose ad-
ministration showed that the thorough-
going doctrines of prerogative Avere quite
as congenial to the House of Hanover as
ever they had been to the House of Stuart.
On the retirement of Mr. Pitt, the mer-
chants, traders, and citizens of Dublin,
who had noAv become not only an oiAulent
and influential body, but thorouglfly
imbued with the political theories of
Lucas, their representative (who had
lately returned from his exile and been
returned for the city), presented a most
grateful address to Mr. Pitt, expressive
of their admiration of his principles, and
sincere regret that the country was de-
prived of his services. The immediate
effect of the change of administration
upon the conduct of Parliament, demon-
strates, however, the extent and depth of
the corruption Avhich had there penetrated
so deep into the Avhole body politic of the
English colony in Ireland. On the very
first day of the last session (22nd October,
17G1) the Commons had ordered “ that
leave be given to bring in the heads of a
bill to limit the duration of Parliaments”
(the Septennial Bill), in imitation of the
Septennial laAv of England. Dr. Lucas,
Mr. Perry, and Mr. George LoAvther, Avere
ordered to report and bring up the bill. It
Avas received,read,committed; amendments
Avere proposed and accepted ; in the course
of December in that year, the heads of the
bill being reported from the committee of
the whole House, Avere finally agreed to.
But before any further step Avas taken.
Lord Bute and his Tory ministry came in,
and Avhen a motion Avas made that the
Speaker should attend the lord-lieutenant
to giv'e him the bill for transmission to
London, in the usual form, the motion
was lost by a A'ote of 108 against forty-
three. This majority of sixty-five upon a
question so reasonable, so necessar}^ and
so constitutional, shoAvs the rapid decline
of the Patriotic interest in Ireland after
the late changes ; the reduction of which
Avas very artfully effected by the tAvo first
of the lords justices. Primate Stone, the
Earl of Shannon, and Mr. John Ponsonby,
the Speaker. Thus Avas Mr. Lucas’s first
Patriotic bill lost, to the no small dis-
appointment and mortification of the
people out of doors. It is highly material
to observe, that in proportion as Patriots
fell off in Parliament, they sprang up out
of it. This ministerial triumph vv^as fol-
lowed by no popular disturbance, but by
deep and general disappointment. A
meeting of the citizens of Dublin gave
expression, calmly and temperately, to the
feelings of the peoj^le, in a series of resolu-

tions, one of Avhich is Avorth transcribing,
as illustrating the strictly Protestant
character of all this patriotism. “ Resolved,
That the clandestine arts Avhich are usually
practised (and have been sometimes detec-
ted) in obstructing of bills tending to
promote the Protestant interest, ought to
make Protestants the more active in sup-
porting the Septennial Bill ; the rather, as
no doubt can remain, that a septennial
limitation of Parliaments Avould render
the generality of landlords assiduous in
procuring Protestant tenants, and that
the visible advantage accruing Avould
induce others to conform.” His failure
did not daunt the indefatigable Dr. Lucas.
He presented the heads of bills for securing
the freedom of Parliament, by ascertaining
the qualifications of knights, citizens,
and burgesses, and for vacating the seats
of members, Avho Avould accept any
lucrative office or employment from the
croAvn, and of persons upon the establish-
ment of Great Britain and Ireland.
All these measures failed ; the Court
party under Lord Bute AA^as noAv supreme
But this Court party had adopted a dif
ferent language. It Avas no longer called
the English interest^ for Primate Stone Avas
too good a politician to keep up that offen-
sive term, after he had so successfully
brought over some of the leading Patriots
to his side, avIio in supporting all the
measures of the British cabinet, affected
to do so, still as Irish Patriots. Among
these Irish Patriots avIio had thus pru-
dently sold themselves, and were zealous
to give good value for their purchase-
money, Avas Boyle, earl of Shannon.

The Earl of Halifax had been recalled,
and Avas succeeded as lord-lieutenant by
the Earl of Northumberland. The neAv
viceroy opened a session of Parliament, in
October, 1763, in a speech Avherein he
expressed, in the king’s name, his majesty’s
just and gracious regard for a dutiful and
loyal people, and congratulated them on
the birth of a Prince of Wales. They
AA'ould much rather have had their Sep-
tennial Bill.

The next efforts of the Patriots Avere
directed against the pension list, Avhich
had groAvn to be an enormous evil and
oppression ; but the first motion for an
address to the king on this subject Avas
negatived, on a division of 112 against
seventy-three. So Aveak was now the
Patriotic cause in the Commons. Pensions
continued to be lavished Avith unchecked
profusion. The debate, hoAvever, on this
motion AA^as Avarm and spirited. Mr J.
Fitzgerald took the lead on the Patriot
side. He stated (and Avas not contradicted)
that the pensions then charged upon the

94

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

civil establishment of the kingdom
amounted to no less than £72,000 per
annum, besides the French and military
pensions, and besides the sums paid for
old and now unnecessary employments,
and those paid in unnecessary additions
TO the salaries of others : that the pensions,
therefore, exceeded the civil list above
£42,000 : that not only since the House in
1757 had voted the increase of pensions
alarming, had they been yearly increased ;
but that in the time of a most expensive
Avar, and when the country had willingly
and cheerfully increased a very consider-
able national debt ; and Avhen the addi-
tional influence of the croAvn from
the levying of neAV regiments might well
have prevented the necessity of new pen-
sionary gratiflcations. He then dreAv a
piteous portrait of the country ; not one-
third peopled ; two-thirds of the people
unemployed, consequently indolent,
Avretched, and discontented ; neither
foreign trade, nor home consumption
sufficient to distribute the conveniences
of life among them AAuth reasonable
equality, or to pay any tax proportionable
to their number. What neAv mode of
taxation could be devised ? Would they
tax leather AAfliere no shoes Avere Avorn,
or talloAV Avhere no candles Avere burned ?
They could not tax the roots of the earth
and the Avater on Avhich the Avretched
peasantry existed ; they could tax no
commodity that Avould not defeat itself,
by Avorking a prohibition. He then
entered into the legal and constitutional
rights of the croAvn over the public
revenue, and strongly resisted tlie as-
sumed right of charging the public re-
A'enue AAuth prh'ate jrensions. The croAvn,
he contended, had a public and private
reA^enue: the public it recei\'ed as a
trustee for the public ; the private it
received in its OAvn right ; the former
arose out of temporary duties, and Avas
appropriated by Tarliament to specific
public purposes, and Avas not left to the
discretionary disposal of the croAvn. The
latter did not in Ireland exceed £7,000
per annum, and the pensions amounting
t-o £72,000 exceeded the fund, Avhich could
alone be charged Avith them by £G5,000
per annum.

The Court party strenuously resisted
these arguments, as an unconstitutional
and indecent attack upon the prerogative ;
insisting that the regal dignity should be
sup])orted by a poAver to reAvard as Avell as
to punish ; that the king Avas not to hold
a SAvord in one hand and a barren sceptre
in the other ; that the tAvo great springs
of all actions Avere hope and fear ; and
Avhere fear only operated, love could have

no place ; Avith many other slavish phrases
usual in such a case.

In this Avar against the pension list the
most active member of the Commons was
Mr. Perry, member for Limerick. He
soon returned to the charge, and moA'ed
an address to the king — but Avith his
usual Avant of success — remonstrating-
against the Avasteful extravagance of
the GoA^ernment. The address Avas not
adopted, but a feAv sentences of it contain
facts Avorth recording.

“That the expenses of the present
military establishment amounts in tAvo
years to the sum of £980,955 19s. The
civil establishment to £242,956 10s. 9d. ;
to Avhich must be added at the most
moderate computation £300,000 for extra-
ordinary and contingent expenses of
Government. That these sums added
together amount to the sum of £1,523,912
9s, 9d, That to ansAver this expense, the
Avhole revenue of this kingdom, the ad-
ditional as well as hereditary duties,
exclusive of the loan duties, AAfliich are
but barely sufficient to pay the interest of
£650,000, the present national debt,
amount to the sum of £1,209,864 at a
medium for fourteen years ; so that the
expense of the nation for these last tAvo
years must exceed its Avhole revenue in a
sum of £314,248 9s. 9d., Avhich deficiency
being added to the national debt, must
leave this kingdom at the next meeting of
Parliament near £1,000,000 in debt.

* * * That the imports, exports, and

home consumption of this kingdom are
already taxed to the utmost they can bear.
That any addition to these taxes, instead
of increasing, must lessen the revenue.
That nothing noAV remains to be taxed
but our lands, AA^hich are already loaded
Avith quit rents, croAvn rents, composition
rents, and hearth money. That if the
present establishments are to continue,
the debt of the nation must constantly
increase, and in the end prove the utter
ruin of the kingdom.”

All these reclamations against pensions
and other Avasteful or corrupt expendi-
tures, proved utterly unavailing, and the
evil Avent from bad to Avorse until the true
remedy Avas discovered, in 1782.

But this year 1763 is remarkable for
the first Parliamentary effort ever made
in Ireland to mitigate, in a very small
degree, the Penal Code against Catholics.
They had been disabled, ever since Queen
Anne’s time, from taking landed security
by Avay of mortgage on money lent. But
this Avas found inconA^enient, not only to
them (Avhich Avould have mattered noth-
ing), but also to Protestants A\"ho Avanted
1 to borrow money. The Catholics, shut

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

95

out from political power, had been in-
dustrious and thrifty : many of them were
rich, but having no security at home, they
had invested their money abroad, and
thence had sometimes come the supjdies
for Jacobite invasions. On the 25th
November, 1763, Mr Mason rose in his
place and reminded the House that in the
last session of Parliament heads of a bill
had been passed for empowering Papists
to lend money on mortgages of real
estate, * and that the bill had been
cushioned by the English Privy Council.
He moved accordingly for leave to bring
in another. Some of the arguments for
and against this measure are very notable.
IMr Mason urged that money was always
power, and that money which is placed in
Protestant hands, upon mortgage, is
power in favour of the State ; the same
money, in the hands of the Papists unlent,
supposing the Papist to be an enemy to
the State, was power against it. Besides
money was not a local, but transitory
property; a Papist, possessed only of
money, had no local interest in the
country, but a Papist mortgagee had ; he
would be engaged to support the Govern-
ment in point of interest : his security for
his money was good, while Government
subsisted, and in the convulsion that
always attends the subversion of Govern-
ment, it would at least become doubtful ;
besides, the greater the advantages which
the Papists receive under the present con-
stitution, the more they must desire its
continuance, and he would venture to say,
that if the Papists were to be admitted to
all the privileges of Protestant subjects,
there would scarce be a practical J acobite
among them, whatever there might be in
theory. “ I should, therefore, be glad
that the bill should have another trial, and
shall move for leave to bring in the heads
of a bill to empower Papists to lend
money on the mortgage of land, and to
sue for the same.”

Mr. Le Hunte said that he thought
the bill proposed would eventually make
Papists proprietors of great part of the
landed interest of the kingdom, which
would certainly extend their influence,
and that it was dangerous trusting
to the use they would make of it,
upon a supposition that their interests
would get the better of their prin-
ciples. That the act mentioned to have
passed the last session, did not pass with-
out a division, there being a majority of

* There is no entry of this former bill, referred
to by Mr. Mason, on the journals of Parliament.
Mr. Plowden “laments that those journals are so
little to be relied upon when matters relating to the
Catholics are the subject of entry.”

no more than twelve in its favour, and
that it would not have passed at all, if it
had not been for some artful management,
it being brought in the very last day of
session, when no more than sixty- two
members were present. He, therefore,
begged that the honourable gentleman
would postpone his motion till Monday,
as the House was then thin, and gentlemen
would thus have time to consider the sub
ject, which was of very great importance
He added, that as there was reason to
sui)pose it to be the general sense of the
House that such a bill should not pass, he
thought it would be better that no heads
of such bill should be brought in, as it
was cruel to raise expectations which
would probably be disappointed,

Mr. Mason consented to postpone his
motion. Accordingly on the 3rd of Feb-
ruary, 1764, Mr. Mason presented to the
House, according to order, heads of a bill
to ascertain what securities might be taken
by persons professing the Popish religion
for money lent or to be lent by them, and
also what remedies they might enforce.

The House rejected the bill : 138 for
the rejection, and 53 against it. Another
motion was then made to bring in a bill
enabling Papists to take securities upon
lands, but in such a manner that they
could never meddle with the possession thereof;
which was immediately negatived by a
majority of 44. Yet this Avas a proposal
for a very sligh modification of the Penal
Code on one single point ; and on the ex-
press ground that such modification would
be useful to the Protestants and would
serve the Protestant interest. Its recep-
tion marks the stage of advance Avliich
principles of religious freedom had then
reached.

In December, 1764, Primate Stone and
the Earl of Shannon both happily died.
There Avas no hope of any mitigation in
the system of corruption and oppression
so long as that league between the Englisli
Primate and the purchased “ Irish Patriot ”
subsisted.

The Earl of Hartford Avas appointed lord-
lieutenant, and opened the session in 1765.
In December of that year died at Eome, at
an advanced age, the person variously
termed King James III., the Pretender,
the “King over the water.” He had
borne his misfortunes with great fortitude
and equanimity ; and sometimes AA^ent to
pass the carnival at Venice. His death at
last made no impression in Ireland, and
was almost unknown there.

The Patriotic party in Parliament was
now reduced to its very lowest ebb. It
would be Avearisome to detail all the
motions uniformly defeated, for inquiries

<)6

HISTORY OF IRELAXD.

into the pension list, and into improper
and corrupt appointments to the judicial
bench. Tiie Patriots tried another plan
— an address to the lord-lieutenant, setting
forth the miserable condition of the king-
dom, asking for an account of the pro-
ceedings of the Privy Council ■which had
cushioned their Bill for letter securing the
Freedom of Parliament^ and asking for a
return of the jDatents granted in reversion,
etc. But the Court party moved, and
carried, that in lieu of the words “ the
sense of their miserable condition,” they
should insert the words : “ their happy con-
dition under his viajestfs auspicious govern-
ment.^'

!Still, ever since the death of Stone and
the Earl of Shannon, the party of inde-
pendence was making some progress in
Parliament. Lucas Avorked hard, and
Avas Arell sustained by his constituents in
Dublin. He made many coiiA'erts to his
Septennial Bill amongst the country
gentlemen, and to purchase back some of
these converts put the Government to
considerable expense — Avhich, it is true,
they found means to charge to the people.
A neAv bill Aras transmitted, through Lord
Hartford, for limiting the duration of
Parliaments, and again it Avas stopped by
the English Prh'y Council. Another bill
Avas introduced this session “ to preA'ent
the buying and selling of offices AA'hich
concern the administration of justice, or
the collection of His Majesty’s reA^enue
but it Avas voted doAvn in the Commons
and never CA'en Avent to England.

In the meantime the national debt Avas
steadily increasing.

In the year 1705 thercA'enue of Ireland,
although considerably increased upon the
AA'hole receipt, still fell so far short of the
expenses of Government, that £100,000
Avas directed to be raised at four per cent.,
and the principal due upon the different
loans Avas ordered to be consolidated into
one sum, making in the Avhole £596,000
at fiA-e per cent. Avhich remained due at
Lady- day. The debt of the nation then
amounted to £508,871 5s. 9M. There
Avas this year a great scarcity of grain,
as likeAvise a general failure of potatoes,
Avhich Avas seA-erely felt by the loAver
ranks. The legislature found it neces-
sary to interpose : they passed an act to
stop the distilleries for a certain time
(Avhich consequently iiroduced a decrease
in the Excise), and also an act to preA^ent
the exportation of corn ; in both of Avhich
acts it is recited, that it Avas apprehended
there Avas not sufficient corn in the king-
dom for the food of the inhabitants until
the harA'est.

On this last act a ugav controversy arose.

When the bill Avas sent to England, the
PriA’y Council there inserted into it a
dispensing poAver in favour of the croAvn :
— the king might by his simple order in
in council permit the exportation of grain
or flour, any thing in the act contained
to the contrary notAAuthstanding. The
Patriots vainly resisted this alteration :
they alleged that even under the restric-
tions of Poyning’s LaAv, the king had
only poAver of assent or dissent ; not a
poAver of alteration, AA'hich from its nature
imports a deliberate poAver that could not
exist saA'e in the Lords and Commons of
Ireland. AH resistance, hoAvever, Avas
unavailing, and the bill Avas passed as
altered.

Lord Hartford had not on this occasion
asserted the prerogatiA'e and served the
English interests so zealously as had been
expected of him. Therefore he Avas re-
called ; and after a short interregnum
under lords justices (for the last time),
Lord ToAA'iishend Avas sent to Ireland, in
October, 1767.

This nobleman Avas selected to introduce
a very important change in the system of
governing Ireland. In order to attempt
the arduous task of supplanting the deep-
rooted influence of the Irish oligarchy, it
Avas requisite that the lord-lieutenant,
to AA'hom that poAver Avas to be trans-
ferred, should be endoAved AA'ith those
qualities that Avere most likely to
ingratiate him Avith the Irish nation.
The neAv lord-lieutenant excelled all
his predecessors in that conA'ivial ease,
pleasantry, and humour, so highly prized
by the Irish of every description. The
majority Avhich had been so dearly bought
in the Commons, by those Avho had here-
tofore had the management oit\\e English
interest, Avas noAv found not altogether so
tractable as it had heretofore been. There
Avere three or four grandees Avho had such
an influence in the House of Commons
that their coalition AA'ould, at any time,
gh'e them a clear majority upon any ques-
tion. To gain these had been the chief
anxiety of former governors : they Avere
sure to bring oA^er a jAroportionate number
of dependants, and it had been the un-
guarded maxim to permit subordinate
graces andfaA'ours to floAvfrom or through
the hands of these leaders.* Eormerly
these principals used to stipulate AA’ith
each neAv lord-lieutenant, Avhose office
Avas biennial and residence but for six
months, upon Avhat terms they Avould
carry the king’s business through the
House : so that they might not improperly
be called undertakers. They provided,
that the disposal of all Court favours
* Phil, SuTA'.. p 57

7

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

97

whether places, pensions, or preferments,
should pass through their hands, in order
to keep their suite in an absolute state of
dependence upon themselves. All applica-
tions were made by the leader, who
claimed as a right the privilege of gratify-
ing his friends in proportion to their
numbers. Whenever such demands w'ere
not complied with, then were the measures
of Government sure to be crossed and
obstructed ; and the session of Parliament
became a constant struggle for power
between the heads of parties, who used to
force themselves into the office of lord
justice according to the prevalence of their
interest. This evil had been seen and
lamented by Lord Chesterfield, and his
resolution and preparatory steps for under-
mining it probably contributed not a little
to his immediate recall, upon the cessation
of the danger, which his wisdom was
thought alone competent to avert.

This was the system of which Lord Clare
said, “The Government of England at
length opened their eyes to the defects
and dangers of : they shook the power of
the aristocracy, but were unable to break
it down.”

The primary object of Lord Toaviis-
hend’s administration was to break up the
monopolizing system of this oligarchy.
He in part succeeded, but by means
ruinous to the country. The subalterns
were not to be detached from their chiefs,
but by similar though more powerful
means than those by which they had en-
listed under their banner. The streams
of favour became not only multiplied,
but enlarged. Every individual now
looked up directly to the fountain head,
and claimed and received more copious
draughts. Thus, under colour of destroy-
ing an overgrown aristocratic power, all
parliamentary independence was com-
pletely destroyed by Government. The
innovation naturally provoked the desert-
ed few to resentment. They took refuge
under the shelter of patriotism, and they
inveighed with less effect against the
venality of the system, merely because it
had taken a new direction, and Aras some-
what enlarged. The bulk of the nation,
and some, though very few, of their repre-
sentatives in Parliament, were earnest,
firm, and implacable against it.

The arduous task which Lord Towns-
hend had assumed was not to be effected
by a coup de main : forces so engaged, so
marshalled, and so commanding rather
than commanded, as he found the Irish
Parliament, were not to be dislodged by a
sudden charge : regular, gradual, and
cautious approaches were to be made :
it w^as requisite that the chief governor

should first be popular, and then power-
ful, before he could be efficient and suc-
cessful. His lordship, therefore, to tliose
convivial fascinations to which Irish
society was so sensible, superadded as
many personal favours, as the fiscal stores
could even promise to answer, which in a
people of quick and warm sensibility
creates a something very like momentary
gratitude ; and in order the more com-
pletely to seat himself in that effective
power, wdiich was requisite for his j)ur-
pose, he judiciously fixed upon a favourite
object of the Avishes and attempts of the
Patriots to sanction Avith his countenance
and support.

This was the long-Avished-for Septennial
Bill.

Dr. Lucas had several times failed in his
endeavours to procure abillfor limiting the
duration of Parliament. Now, hoAvever,
a Septennial Bill aauis transmitted, and
was returned Avith an alteration in j)oint
of time, having been changed into an
Octennial one. There appears to have
been some unfair manoeuvring in the
British cabinet, in order by a side Avind
to deprive the Irish of that, Avhich they
dared not openly refuse them. At the same
time a transmission A\\as made of another
popular bill for the independence of the
judges, in Avhich they had also inserted
some alteration. It Avas expected that
the violent tenaciousness of the Irish
Commons for the privilege of not having
their heads of bills altered by the English
ministers, would have induced them to
reject any bill, into Avhich such an altera-
tion had been introduced. In this the
English cabinet was deceived : the Irish
Commons AA^aived the objecton as to the
limitation bill, in order to make sure at
last of Avhat they had so long tried in
vain to procure, but objected on this very
account to the judges bill, Avhich was
transmitted at the same time Avith altera-
tions : for although this latter bill had
been particularly recommended in the
speech of the lord-lieutenant, it Avas on
account of an alteration inserted in it in
England, unanimously rejected.

No sooner Avas the Octennial Bill re-
turned, than the Commons voted a
respectful and grateful address to the
throne, beseeching his majesty to accept
their unfeigned and grateful acknowledg-
ments for the condescension so signally
manifested to his subjects of that king-
dom, in returning the bill for limiting the
duration of Parliaments, Avhich they con-
sidered not only as a gracious mark of
paternal benevolence, but as a wise result
of royal deliberation. And Avhen the
royal assent had been given, the action

i

98

IIISTOKY OF IKELAND.

Aras so grateful to the people, that they
took the horses from the viceroy’s coach,
and drew him from the parliament house
Avith the most enthusiastic raptures of
applause and exultation. But his lord-
ship’s popularity did not last long. By
diverting the channel of favour, or rather
by dividing it into a multitude of little
streams, the gentlemen of the House of
Commons AA’ere taught to look up to him,
not only as the source, but as the dispen-
ser of every gratification. Xot even a
commission in the revenue, Avorth above
.£4:0 a year, could be disposed of, Avithout
his approbation. Thus AA'ere the old
undertakers given to understand, that
there Avas another Avay of doing business
than through them. It Avas not, hoAvever,
Avithout much violence on both sides, that
he at length effected his purpose. The
immediate sufferers did not fail to call
this alteration in the system of governing,
an innovation, Avhich they artfully taught
the people to resent as a national
grievance.

It Avill be seen that although the
Patriots had noAv gained their famous
measure, not indeed as a Septennial, but
at least as an Octennial Bill, Avhich Avas
to have been a panacea for all the evils of
the State ; its effects Avere far from
ansAvering their expectations. ExtraA'a-
gance and corruption still grcAv and
spread under Lord ToAAmshend’s adminis-
tration. ProjArietors of boroughs found
their property much enhanced in A’alue,
because there Avas a market for it every
eight years. The reflections of Thomas
jMcXevin on this subject are A*ery just :
— Some doubts arose as to the benefits
jAroduced by this bill in the Avay designed
by its framers ; but no one doubted that
the spirit discoA^ered by the Patriot party
in the House produced effects at the time
and someAvhat later, Avhich cannot be
overstated or overvalued. It may, indeed,
be doubted Avhether any measure, Iioav-
GA^er beneficial in itself, could in those
days of A'enality and oppression, AAuth a
constitution so full of blemishes, and a
spirit of intolerance influencing the best
and ablest men of the day, such as Lucas
for example, could be productive of any
striking or permanent advantage. We
must not be astonished, then, that the
Octennial Bill Avas found incommen-
surate Avith the expectations of the
I’atriots, Avho might have looked for the
reasons of this and similar disappoint-
ments in their oAvn venality, intolerance,
fickleness, and shortcomings, if they
had chosen to reflect on themselves and
their motiA^es. The real advantages are
to be found in the principles pro-

pounded and the spirit displayed in
the debates.”*

In short, no mere reforms in parlia-
mentary elections or procedure could
avail to create in this English colony
either a national spirit or national pro-
portions, or to stay the corruption and
A'enality so carefully organized by English
governors for the express purpose of
keeping it doAvn, so long as the colony'
did not associate AA'ith itself the multitu
dinous masses of the Catholic people—
so long as half a million had to hold doAvn
and coerce over tAvo millions of disarmed
and disfranchised people, and at the same
time to contend Avith the insolence and
rapacity of Great Britain. Xationality
in Ireland Avas necessarily fated to be
delusive and eA’anescent.

“ So long £>s Ireland did pretend.

Like sugar-loaf turned upside doAvn,

To stand upon its smaller end.”t

In the year 1767, the Avhole population of
the island Avas estimated, or in part calcu-
lated, at 2,544,276, and of these less than
half a million Avere Protestants of the
tAvo sects.

It must, hoAvever, be acknoAvledged
that in this oppressive minority there
began to be deA'eloped a A'ery strong
political vitality, chiefly OAving to the
strong personal interest Avhich eA'ery one
had in public affairs, and to the spread of
political information, through neAvspapers
and pamphlets, and the very able speeches
Avhich uoAv began to give the Irish Parlia-
ment a just celebrity. Dr. Lucas con-
ducted the Freeman's Journal, Avhich Avas
established A'ery soon after the accession
of George III. This journal AA*as soon
folloAved by another called the Hibernian
Journal. Flood, Hussey, Burgh, Yelver-
ton, and aboA'e all, Grattan, contributed
to these papers. In the administration of
Lord ToAvnshend appeared the Dublin
Mercury, a satirical sheet aA'OAvedly pat-
ronized by Government. It Avas intended
to turn Patriots and Patriotism into
ridicule : but the Government had not
all the laughers on its side.

A Avitty Avarfare Avas carried on against
Lord ToAvnshend in a collection of letters
on the affairs and history of Barataria,
by Avhich Avas intended Ireland. The
letters of Posthumus and Pericles, and
the dedication, Avere A\'ritten by Henry
Grattan, at the time of the publication
a very young man. The principal papers,
and all the history of Barataria,
the latter being an account of Lord
ToAvnshend’s administration, his protest,
and his prorogation, AA'ere the composition.

* McNcA'in’s History of the Volunteers.

t Moore. Memoir of Captain Rock.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

99

of Sir Hercules Lan^rishe. Two of his
witticisms are still remembered, as being,
in fact, short essays on the politics of Ire-
land. Riding in the park with the lord-
lieutenant, his excellency complained of
his predecessors having left it so damp
and marshy ; Sir Hercules observed,
“they were too much engaged in draining
the rest of the kingdom,” Being asked
where was the best and truest history of
Ireland to be found ? he answered : “In

the continuation of Rapin”

CHARTER XV.

17G2— 17G7.

Reign of Terror in Munster. — Murder of Father
Sheehy. — “Toleration,” under the House of
Hanover. — Precarious condition of Catholic Clergy.
— Primates in hiding. — Working of the Penal
Laws. — Testimony of Arthur Young.

CoxTEMPORAXEOUSLY with the Parlia-
mentary struggles for the Octennial Act,
and for arresting, if possible, the public
extravagance and corruption, there was
going on in an obscure parish of Tip-
perary, one of those dark transactions
which were so common in Ireland during
all this century as to excite no attention,
and leave scarcely a record — the judicial
murder of Rather Nicholas Sheehy. His
story is a true and striking epitome of the
history of the Catholic nation in those
da}"s, and the notoriety of the facts at the
time, and the character of the principal
victim, have caused the full details to be
handed doAvn to us, minutely and with the
clearest evidence.

The bitter distresses of the people of
Munster, occasioned by rack-rents, by the
merciless exactions of the established
clergy and their tithe-proctors, and by
the inclosure of commons, had gone on
increasing and growing more intense from
the year 17G0, until despair and misery
drove the people into secret associations,
and in 17G2, as we have seen, the White-
boys had in some places broken out into
unconnected riots to pull down the fences
that inclosed their commons, or to resist
the collection of church-rates. These dis-
turbances were greatly exaggerated
in the reports made to Government by the
neighbouring Protestant jii’^P^’ictors,
squires of the CromAvellian brood, who
represented that Avretched Jacquerie as
nothing less than a Popish rebellion, in-
stigated by France, supported by French
money, and designed to bring in the Pre-
tender.

The village of Clogheen lies in the
valley between the Galtees and the range
of Knockmaoldown, in Tipperary, near
the borders of Waterford and of Cork
counties. Its parish priest Avas the
Reverend Nicholas Sheehy : he Avas of a
good Irish family, and Avell educated,
haAung, as usual at that period, gone to
France — contrary to “ laAv ” — for the in-
struction denied him at home. On the
Continent he had probably mingled much
with the high-spirited Irish exiles, who
made the name of Ireland famous in all
the camps and courts of Europe, and on
his perilous return (for that too Avas
against the laAv), to engage in the labours
of his still more perilous mission, his soul
Avas stirred Avithin him at the sight of the
degradation and abject AA'retchedness of
the once proud clans of the south. With
a noble imprudence, Avhich the moderate
Dr. Curry terms “ a quixotic cast of mind
towards relieving all those Avithin his
district Avhom he fancied to be injured or
oppressed,” he spoke out against some of
the enormities Avhich he daily Avitnessed.
In the neighbouring parish of NeAV-
castle, Avhere there Avere no Protestant
parishioners, he had ventured to say that
there should be no church-rates, and the
people had refused to pay them. About
the same time, the tithes of tAvo Protes-
tant clergymen in the vicinity of Bally-
poreen, Messrs. Foulkes and Sutton, Avere
farmed to a tithe-proctor of the name of
Dobbyn. This proctor forthAvith insti-
tuted a ncAv claim upon the Catholic
people of this district, of liA'e shillings for
every marriage celebrated by a priest.*
This new impost Avas resisted by the
people, and as it fell lieavily on the
parishioners of Mr. Sheehy, he denounced
it publicly ; in fact he did not even con-
ceal that he questioned altogether the
divine right of a clergy to the tenth part
of the produce of a half-starved peojde, of
Avhose souls they had no cure. Hoav these
doctrines Avere relished by the Croni-
Avellian magistrates and Anglican rectors
in his neighbourhood, may well be con-
ceived. It Avas not to be tolerated that
the Catholic people should begin to sup-
lAose that they had any rights. The legis-
lation of the Ascendency had strictly jAro-
vided that there should be no Catholic
laAA'yers ; it had also carefully prohibited
education ; nothing had been omitted to
stifle Avithin the hearts of the peasantry
every sentiment of human dignity, and
Avhen they found that here Avas a man
* These details and a great mass of others bearing
on the case of Mr. Sheehy, are given by Dr. Madden
in his First Series (United Irishmen). He lias care-
fnlly sifted the whole of the proceedings, and
tin-own much light upon them.

100

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

amongst the peasantry who could both
read and write, and who could tell them
how human beings lived in other lands,
and what freedom and right were, it is
not to be wondered at that his powerful
neighbours resolved they would have his
blood.

When in 1762, the troubles in the south
were first supposed to call for military
coercion, it was precisely in this village
of Clogheen that the Marquis of Drog-
heda, commanding a considerable military
force, fixed his headquarters. On that
same night an assemblage of Whiteboys
took place in the neighbourhood, with the
intention, as was believed, of attacking
the town, but a clergyman named Doyle,
parish priest of Ardfinnan, on learning of
their intention (as one of the informers
states in his depositions), went amongst
them and succeeded in preventing any
offensive movement. His purpose, how-
ever, in so doing was as usual represented
to be insidious.

From this time the Earl of Drogheda
made several incursions into the adjacent
country, “ and great numbers of the in-
surgents,” as we are informed by Sir
Kichard Musgrave, “ were killed by his
lordship’s regiment, and French money
was found in the pockets of some of
them.” We are not informed what the
“insurgents” were doing when they
were killed, nor in what this insurrection
consisted, but we may here present the
judgment of Edmund Burke upon those
transactions “I was three times in Ire-
land, from the year 1760 to the year 1767,
where I had sufficient means of informa-
tion concerning the inhuman pro-
ceedings (among which were many cruel
murders, besides an infinity of out-
rages and oppressions unknown before in
a civilized age) which prevailed during that
period, in consequence of a pretended con-
spiracy among Roman Catholics against
the king’s government.” In short, there
was no such conspiracy, and if the state-
ment of Sir Richard Musgrave be true,
which is highly improbable, that any
coins of French money were found in the
pockets of the slain, “ that may be ac-
counted for,” says Mr Matthew O’Connor,
“as the natural result of a smuggling in-
tercourse with France, and in particular
of the clandestine export of wool to that
country.”*

While the troops were established at
Clogheen they were constantly employed
in this well-known method of pacifying
the country, and they were seconded with
sanguinary zeal by several neighbouring
gentlemen, especially Sir Thomas Maude,
* M. O’Connor. “History of the Iiish Catholics.”

William Bagnell, and John Bagnell,
Esquires ; many arrests were made as
well as murders committed, and active
preparation was made for what in Ireland
is called “ trial ” of those offenders — that
is indictment before juries of their mortal
enemies. Diligent in the arrangement of
the panels for these trials, we find Daniel
Toler, high sheriff’ of the county, who was
either father or uncle of that other Toler,
the bloody judge, afterwards known
under the execrated title of Norbury.

Amidst all this we are not to suppose
that Father Sheehy was forgotten. In
the course of the disturbances he was
several times arrested, indicted, and even
tried as a “Popish priest,” not being
duly registered, or not having taken the
abjuration oath : but so privately did the
priests celebrate mass in those days that
it was found impossible to procure any
evidence against him. We find also that
he was indicted at Clonmel assizes, in
1763, as having been present at a White-
boy assemblage, and as having forced one
Ross to swear that he never would testify
against Whiteboys. At this same assizes,
a true bill was found against Michael
Quinlan, a Popish priest, for having at
Aughnacarty and other places, exercised
the office and functions of a Popish
priest, against the peace of our lord the
king and the statute, &c. To make
conviction doubly sure, as in Sheehy’s
case, a second information was sent
up on the same occasion, charging Father
Quinlan with a riotous assemblage at
Aughnacart}", so that if it was not a riot
it Avas a mass, and if it was not a mass it
was a riot — criminal in either case.

It is needless to state the details of all
these multifarious legal proceedings ex-
tending through several years. To
pursue the story of Father Sheehy : he
was acquitted on the charge of being a
Popish priest, “to his own great misfor-
tune,” says poor Dr. Curry, “ for had he
been convicted, his punishment, which
would be only transportation, might have
prevented his ignominious death, Avhich
soon after folloAved.” Can there be con-
ceived a more touching illustration of the
abject situation of the Catholics, than
that such should be the reflection which
suggested itself on such an occasion to
the worthy Dr. Curry ?

It also deserves to be noted in passing,
that no public man in Ireland Avas more
ferocious in denouncing the unhappy
Whiteboys and calling jfor their blood,
than the celebrated Patriot, Henry Flood.
On the 13th of October, 1763, in moA'ing
for an instruction to the committee to in-
quire into the causes of the “insurrec-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

101

tions” (which he would have to bo a
Popish rebellion and nothing less), he ex-
pressed his amazement that the indict-
ments in the south were only laid for a
riot and breach of the peace, and anim-
adverted severely on the lenient conduct
of the judges. The solicitor-general had
actually to modify the wrath of the blood-
thirsty Patriot, and to assure him “ that
whenever lenity had been shown, it was
only where reason and humanity required
it,”* which we may be very sure was
true.

But Avhosoever might be alloAved to
escape, that lot was not reserved for
Father Sheehy.f For two whole years,
while the gibbets were groaning and the
jails bursting Avith his poor parishioners,
he was enabled to baffle all prosecution ;
sometimes escaping out of the very toils
of the attorney-general b}'- default of
evidence, sometimes concealing himself in
the glens of the mountains, until in the
year 1765 the Government was prevailed
upon by his poAverful enemies to issue
a proclamation against him, as a person
guilty of high treason, offering a reward
of three hundred pounds for taking him,
AAdiich Sheehy in his retreat happening to
hear of, immediately Avrote up to Secre-
tary Waite “that as he Avas not conscious
of any such crime, as he aauis charged
with in the proclamation, he Avas ready to
save to the GoA'ernment the money offered
for taking him, by surrendering himself
out of hand, to be tried for that or any
other crime he might be accused :f ; not
at Clonmel, Avherehe feared that the poAA-er
and malice of his enemies Avere too pre-
valent for justice (as they soon after
indeed proved to be), but at the court of
King’s Bench in Dublin.” Ilis proposal
having been accepted, he Avas accordingly
brought up to Dublin, and tried there for
rebellion, of Avhich, hoAvever, after a
severe scrutiny of fourteen hours, he Avas
again acquitted ; no evidence liaving ap-
peared against him but a blackguard boy,
a common prostitute, and an impeached
thief, all brought out of Clonmel jail,
and bribed for the purpose of Avitnessing
against him.

But his inveterate enemies, Avho, like
so many bloodhounds, had pursued him
to Dublin, finding themseh^es disappointed
there, resolved upon his destruction at all
events. One Bridge, an infamous in-
former against some of those Avho had
been executed for these riots, aa^s said to
have been murdered by their associates,

* “ Irish Debates.” Year 1763.

I The remainder of the story of Father Sheehy is
substantially the narrative of Curry.

in revenge (although his body could never
be found),* and a considerable reAvard
was offered for discovering and convicting
the murderer. Sheehy, immediately after
his acquittal in Dublin for rebellion, was
indicted by his pursuers for this murder,
and notwithstanding the promise given
him by those in office on surrendering
himself, he was transmitted to Clonmel,
to be tried there for this neAv crime, and,
upon the sole evidence of the same in-
famous witnesses, Avhose testimony had
been so justly reprobated in Dublin, Avas
there condemned to be hanged and quar-
tered for the murder of a man Avho Avas
never murdered at all.

What barefaced injustice and inhuman-
ity Avere shoAvn to this unfortunate man
on that occasion,! is known and testified
by many thousands of credible persons,
Avho AA'ere present and eye-AAutnesses on
the day of his trial. A party of horse
surrounded the court, admitting and ex
eluding Avhomsoever they thought proper
while others of them, Avith Sir Thomas
Maude at their head, scampered the
streets in a formidable manner, breaking
into inns and private lodgings in the
toAvn, challenging and questioning all
ncAv-comers, menacing the prisoner’s
friends, and encouraging his enemies.
Even after sentence of death Avas pro-
nounced against him (Avhich one Avould

* It was positively sworn, by two unexceptionable
Avitnesses, that he j)rivately left the kingdom some
short time before he was said to have been mur-
dered. iSee notes of the trial taken by one of the
jury, in “Exshaw’s Magazine” for June, 1766.

t To mention only one instance out of many.
During his trial, Mr. Keating, a person of known
property and credit in tliat country, having given
the clearest and fullest evidence, that, during the
whole night of the supposed murder of Bridge, the
prisoner, Nicholas Sheehy, had lain in his house,
that he could not have left it in the night-time
Avithout his knoAvledge, and consequently that he
could not have been even present at the murder :
the Reverend Mr. IleAvetson, an active manager in
these trials, stood up, and after looking on a paper
that he held in his hand, informed the court that he
had Mr. Keating’s name on his list as one of those
that Avere concerned in the killing of a corporal and
sergeant, in a former rescue of some of these level-
lers. Upon which he Avas immediately hurried aAvay
to Kilkenny jail, where he lay for some time, loaded
Avith irons, in ,a dark and loathsome dungeon : by
this proceeding, not only his evidence Avas rendered
useless to Sheehy, but also that of many others was
prevented, who came on purpose to testify the same
thing, but instantly AvithdreAv themselves, for fear
of meeting Avith the same treatment. Mr. Keating
Avas aftei-Avards tried for this pretended murder at
the assizes of Kilkenny, but aa’us honourably acquit-
ted; too late, hoAvever, to be of any service to poor
Sheehy, Avho Avas hanged and quartered some time
before Mr. Keating’s acquittal. The very same evi-
dence Avhich Avas looked upon at Clonmel as good
and sufficient to condemn Mr. Sheehy, having been
afterwards rejected at Kilkenny, as preA'aricatiug
and contradictory Avith respect to Mr. Keating.

102

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

think might have satisfied the malice of
his enemies), his attorney found it neces-
sary for his safety to steal out of the
town by night, and with all possible speed
make his escape to Dublin. The head of
the brave murdered priest was spiked
over the gates of Clonmel jail, and there
remained twenty years. At last his sister
was allowed to bury it where his body lies,
in the old churchyard of Shandraghan.

The night before his execution, Avhich
was but the second after his sentence, he
wrote a letter to Major Sirr, wherein he
declared his innocence of the crime for
which he was next day to suffer death ;
and on the morning of that day, just
before he was brought forth to execution,
he, in the presence of the sub- sheriff and
a clergyman who attended him, again de-
clared his innocence of the murder ;
solemnly protesting at the same time, as
he was a dying man, just going to appear
before the most awful of tribunals, that
he never had engaged any of the rioters
in the service of the French king, by
tendering them oaths, or othenvise ; that
he never had distributed money among
them on that account, nor had ever re-
ceived money from France, or any other
foreign court, either directly or indirectly,
for any such purpose ; that he never kneAv
of any French or other foreign officers
being among these rioters ; or of any
Koman Catholics of property or note,
being concerned with them. At the place
of execution he solemnly averred the same
things, adding, “ that he never heard an
oath of allegiance to any foreign prince
proposed or administered in his lifetime ;
nor ever knew any thing of the murder of
Bridge, until he heard it publicly talked
of ; nor did he know that there ever was
any such design on foot.”

Everybody knew, that this clergyman
might, if he pleased, have easily made his
escape to France, when he first heard of
the proclamation for apprehending him ;
and as he was all along acccused of having
been agent for the French king, in raising
and fomenting these tumults, he could
not doubt of finding a safe retreat, and
suitable recompense for such services, in
any part of that kingdom. It seems,
therefore, absurd in the highest degree, to
imagine that he, or any man, being at the
same time conscious of the complicated
guilt of rebellion and murder, would have
wilfull}’ neglected the double opportunity
of escaiiing punishment and of living at
his ease and safety in another kingdom ;
or that any i^erson, so criminally circum-
stanced as he was thought to be, would
have at all surrendered himself to a public
trial, Avithout friends, money, or family

connections ; and, above all, Avithout that
consciousness of his innocence, on Avhich,
and the protection of the Almighty, he
might possibly have relied for his
deliverance.

Emboldened by this success, Sir Thomas
Maude published an advertisement, some-
Avhat in the nature of a manifesto, Avhere-
in, after having presumed to censure the
administration for not punishing, with
greater and unjustifiable seA^erity, these
Avretched rioters, he named a certain
day, on aa-McIi the folloAving persons of
credit and substance in that country, viz.:
Edmund Sheehy, James Buxton. James
Barrel, and others, Avere to be tried by
commission at Clonmel, as principals or
accomplices in the aforesaid murder of
Bridge. And, as if he meant by dint
of numbers to intimidate even the
judges into laAvless rigour and severity,
he sent forth a sort of authoritativ'e
summons “ to every gentleman in
the county to attend that commission.”
His summons Avas punctually obeyed
by his numerous and poAverful ad-
herents ; and these men, innocent
(as Avill appear hereafter), Avere sentenced
to be hanged and quartered by that com-
mission.

It Avill naturally be asked, upon AA-hat neAv
evidence* this sentence AA^as passed, as it
may Avell be supposed that no use Avas
made of the former reprobated AA'itnesses on

* James Prenclergrast, Esq., a A\'itness for 5Ir.
Edmund Sheehy, perfectly unexceptionable in point
of fortune, character, and religion, which was that
of the established church, deposed, that on the day
and hour on Avhich the murder of Bridge was sworn
to have been committed, viz. ; about or between the
hours of ten and eleven o’clock, on the night of the
28th of October, 1764, Edmund Sheehy, the prison-
er, was with him and others, in a distant part of the
country; that they and their wh’es had, on the
aforesaid 28th of October, dined at the house of ^Ir.
Tenison, near Ardfiuan, in the county of Tipperary,
where they continued until after sup[)er; that it was
about eleven o'clock Avhen he and the prisoner left
the house of IMr. Tenison, and rode a considerable
Avay together on their return to their respective
homes ; that the prisoner had his wife behind him ;
that when he (Mr. hrendergast) got home, he looked
at the clock, and found it Avas the hour of tAvelve
exactly. This testimony Avas confirmed by several
corroborating circumstances, SAA'orn to by tAvo other
Avitnesses, against Avhom no exception appears to
have been taken. And yet. because Mr. Tenison,
although he confessed in his deposition that the
prisoner had dined Avith him in October, 1764, and
does not expressly deny that it Avas on the 28th of
that month ; but says, conjecturally, that he Avas
inclined to think that it Avas earlier than the 2Sth,
the prisoner Avas brought in guilty. Thus positive
and particular proof, produced by IMr I’rendergast,
Avith the circumstances of the day and the hour, at-
tested upon oath by tAvo other Avitnesses, AA’hose
A'eracity seems not to have been questioned, Avas
oA-erruled and set aside by the Amgue and indeter-
minate surmise of Mr. Tenison. — See “ Exshaw's
Gentleman’s and London Magazine,” for April, and
June, 1766.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

103

tliis occasion. But use was made of them,
and a principal use too, in the trial and
conviction of these devoted men. The
managers, however, for the crown, as they
impudently called themselves, being
afraid, or ashamed, to trust the success of
their sanguinary purposes to the now
enfeebled, because generally exploded,
testimony of these miscreants, looked out
for certain props, under the name of ap-
vrovers, to strengthen and support their
tottering evidence. These they soon
found in the persons of Herbert and Bier,
two prisoners, accused, like the rest, of
the murder of Bridge ; and who, though
absolutely strangers to it (as they them-
selves had often sworn in the jail), were
nevertheless in equal danger of being
hanged for it, if they did not purchase
their pardon Iby becoming approvers of
the former false witnesses. Herbert was
so conscious of his innocence in respect to
Bridge’s murder, that he had come to the
assizes of Clonmel, in order to give
evidence in favour of the priest Sheehy ;
but his arrival and business being soon
made known, effectual measures were
taken to prevent his giving such evidence.
Accordingly bills of high treason were
found against him, upon the information
of one of these reprobate witnesses, and a
party of light horse sent to take him
prisoner. Bier, upon his removal after-
Avards to Newgate, in Dublin, declared, in
a dangerous fit of sickness, to the ordinary
of that prison, Avith evident marks of
sincere repentance, “ that for anything he
kneAv to the contrary, the before-men-
tioned Edmund Sheehy, James Buxton,
and James Farrel, Avere entirely innocent
of the fact for Avhich they had suffered
death; and that nothing in this Avorld,
but the preservation of his OAvn life,
Avhich he saAv Avas in the most imminent
danger, should have tempted him to be
guilty of the complicated crimes of per-
jury and murder, as he then confessed he
Avas, Avhen he swore aAvay the lives of those
innocent men.”

On Saturday morning. May 3rd. 17GG,
the convicts Avere hanged and quartered
at Clogheen. Tiieir behaviour at the
place of execution Avas cheerful, but
devout; not content to forgive, they
prayed for and blessed their prosecutors,
judges, and juries. After they Avere tied
up, each of them, in his turn, read a paper
aloud, Avithout tremour, hesitation, or other
visible emotion, Avherein they solemnly
protested, as dying Christians, Avho Avere
quickly to appear before the judgment-
seat of God, that they had no share
either by act, counsel, or knoAvledge in the
murder of Bridge ; that they never heard

an oath of allegiance to any foreign prince
proposed or administered amongst them ;
that they never heard that any scheme of
rebellion, high treason, or a massacre,
Avas intended, offered, or even thought of,
by any of them ; that they never knew of
any commissions, or French or Spanish
officers being sent, or of any money being
paid to these rioters. After this, they
severally declared, in the same solemn
manner, that certain gentlemen, Avhose
names they then mentioned, had tampered
Avith them at different times, pressing
them to make, Avhat they called useful
discoA'eries, by giving in examinations
against numbers of Roman Catholics of
fortune in that province (some of Avlioni
they particularly named) as actually
concerned in a conspiracy and intended
massacre, Avhich Avere never once thought
of. But, above all, that they urged them
to sAvear that the priest, Nicholas Sheehy,
died Avith a lie in his mouth ; Avithout
doing Avhich, they said, no other discovery
Avould avail them. Upon these conditions,
they promised and undertook to procure
their pardons, acquainting them at the
same time, that they should certainly be
hanged, if they did not comj)ly Avitli
them.”

All that has since come to light Avitli
regard to these black transactions — the
testimony of Burke (already cited) that
there Avas no conspiracy for insurrection
at all — the failure to produce the body of
Bridge, though it Avas carefully searched
for in the field Avhere a Avitness SAvore it
had been buried — the hatred notoriously
cherished against Father Sheehy and all
lus friends, on account of his bold conduct
in standing up for his poor parishoners —
and Ave must add the Avhole course of
Irish “justice” from that day to this —
all compel us to credit the dying declara-
tion of these men, Avho AA^ere also of
unblemished character ; and force us to
the conclusion that the Avhole of these
military executions and judicial trials in
Munster, extending o\"er four years, Avere
themselves the result of a most foul con-
spiracy on the part of the Ascendency
faction, Avith its gOA'ernment, its judges,
its magistrates, and its juries — based
upon carefully organized perjury and
carried through by brute force, to “strike
terror” in Tipperary (a measure ofter
found needful since), to destroy all the
leading Catholics of that troublesome
neighbourhood ; and above and before all
things, to hang and quarter the body, and
spike the head, of the generous and
kindly priest Avho told his people that
they Avere human beings and had rights
and Avrongs.

104

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Dr. Curry winds up his account of the
transaction with these reflections : —

“ Such, during the space of three or
four years, was the fearful and pitiable
state of the Roman Catholics of Munster,
and so general did the panic at length
become, so many of the lower sort were
already hanged, in jail, or on the inform-
ers’ lists, that the greatest part of the
rest fled through fear ; so that the land
lay untilled for Avant of hands to culti-
A'ate it, and a famine was Avith reason
apprehended. As for the better sort, Avho
had something to lose (and AA^ho, for that
reason, AA^ere the persons chiefly aimed at
by the managers of the prosecution), they
AA^ere at the utmost loss hoAv to dispose of
themselA*es. If they left the country, their
absence AA^as construed into a proof of
their guilt : if they remained in it, they
AA-ere in imminent danger of haAung their
liA^es sAA'orn aAvay by informers and a|)-
proA'ers ; for the suborning and corrupting
of Avitnesses on that occasion Avas frequent
and barefaced, to a degree almost beyond
belief. The A^ery steAA-s AA’ere raked end
the jails rummaged in search of evidenje;
and the most notoriously profligate in both
AA^ere selected and tampered AAuth, to giA’e
information of the priA^ate transactions
and designs of reputable men, AA'ith AA'hom
they neA'er had any dealing, intercourse
or acquaintance ; nay, to AAdiose A^ery
persons they Avere often found to be
strangers, AA'hen confronted at their trial.

“ In short, so exactly did these prosecu-
tions in Ireland resemble, in every partic-
ular, those AA'hich Avere formerly set on foot
in England, for that villanous fiction of
Oates’s plot, that the former seem to have
been ])lanned and carried on entirely on
the model of the latter ; and the same
just observation that hath been made on
the English sanguinary proceedings, is
perfectly applicable to those AAdiich I have
noAv, in part related, A'iz. : ‘ that for the
credit of the nation, it Avere indeed better
to bury them in eternal oblivion, but that
it is necessary to perpetuate the remem-
brance of them, as Avell to maintain the
truth of history, as to AA'arn, if possible,
our posterity, and all mankind, never
again to fall into so shameful and so
barbarous a delusion.’ ”

All noAv seemed quiet in Munster ; but
it Avas the quietude of despair and ex-
haustion. The Whiteboy spirit was not
really suppressed, because the oppressions
Avhich had occasioned it Avere not relaxed,
but rather aggravated. Many hearths
Avere noAv cold that had been the centre
of a humble family circle four years
before ; and the surviA'ing parishoners of
Clogheen, AA’hen they saAv the blackening

skull of their revered priest upon its spike
Avithering aAvay in the Avind, could read
the fate that, on the first murmur of
revolt, Avas in store for themselves or any
AA^ho should take their part. The next
year (1767), some further arrests AA'ere
made, and the Ascendency party tried
hard to get up an alarm about another
“ Popish rebellion.” No executions fol-
loAved on this occasion, as scA'eral beneA'o-
lent persons contributed money to procure
the prisoners the benefit of the best legal
defence. It is Avith pleasure one reads
among the names of the friends of an
oppressed race Avho contributed to this
fund, the name of Edmund Burke. One-
of the persons arrested on this last
occasion, but afterAvards discharged AAuth-
out trial, Avas Dr. McKenna, Catholic
bishop of Cloyne. He, as aa’cII as all other
ecclesiastics of his order, AA^as, of course,
at all times subject to the penalties of
laAv, to transportation under the acts
“for prcA'enting the groAvth of Popery”
in Queen Anne’s time ; and also to the
penalty of premnnire under earlier laAvs :
yet these bishops continued to exercise
their office, to confirm and confer
orders under a species of connivance,
Avhich passed for toleration. But
their situation, as Avell as that of all
their clerg}', in these first years of King
George III. Avas still as precarious and
anomalous as it had been during all the
reign of George II. Sometimes they
Avere tolerated, sometimes persecuted.
It depended upon the administration
AA'hich happened to be in poAA^er ; upon
the temporary alarms to Avhich the
“ Ascendency” Avas ahvays subject ; and
upon the disposition of local proprietors
and magistrates, Avho Avere occasionally
men of liberal education, and relished the
society of the neighbouring priests avIio
had graduated at Lisbon, or Salamanca,
or LouA’ain, and aaEo AA'ere then frequently
far superior in cultivation and social re-
finement to the Protestant rectors, of
Avhom Dean SAvift sometimes betrays his
loAv estimate. Even the regular clergy,
although the rage and suspicion of the-
Ascendency AA'ere yet more bitter against
them than the secular priests, Avere ahvays
to be found in Ireland. They ran more
cruel risks, hoAvever, than the parisli
priest. If any blind or self-interested
bigot desired to shoAv his zeal in tramp-
ling on the right of conscience, or to raise
the ferocious old cry of “ No Popery ! ”
the regular clergy formed an inexhaustible
subject for his A’oeiferations : if the legis-
lature of the day Avished to indulge "the
popular frenzy by the exhibition of ncAv-
fashioned enactments, or of a ncAV serie s

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

105

of tragedies — monks, Jesuits, and friars,
were sure to pay the cost of the enter-
tainment. It has often been affirmed,
even by the timid Catholic writers of the
last century, that the accession of the
House of Hanover inaugurated an era of
more liberal toleration. It is to be feared
that this kind of admission on their part
was but a courtly device to conciliate, if
not to flatter, that odious House and its
partisans : for the priest-hunters were
never more active than in the reign of
George I., when Garcia brought in his
batches of captured clergymen, and re-
ceived a good price out of the treasury
upon each head of game. In the whole
reign of George II., until the administra-
tion of Chesterfleld, Catholic worship had
to be celebrated with the utmost caution
and secrecy. In this reign, Bernard
MacMahon, Catholic primate, “resided
in a retired place named Ballymascanlon,
in the County of Louth ; his habitation
was little superior to a farmhouse, and
for many years he was known through
the country by the name of Mr. Ennis.
In this disguise, which personal safety so
strongly prompted, he Avas accustomed to
travel over his diocese, make his visi-
tations, exhort his people, and administer
the sacraments.”* In the same way,
Michael O’Reilly, another primate, “lived
in a humble dwelling at Turfegin, near
Drogheda, and died here about the year
1758,”t just two years before the acces-
sion of George III. In the reign of
George III. himself, we have seen Fathers
Sheehy and Quinlan regularly indicted at
assizes, for that they had, at such times
and places, not having the fear of God
before their eyes, but moved and seduced
by the instigation of the deril, said mass
and did other functions of a Popish priest,
against the peace of our lord the king,
and contrary to the statutes in that case
made and ijrovided. We must, therefore,
take these grateful acknowledgments of
the liberal dispositions of the House of
HanoA'-er, Avith considerable qualiflcation,
remembering that the Avriters in question
Avere labouring in the cause of Catholic
Emancipation, under that royal House,
and felt obliged to pay it some compli-
ments upon its noble generosity.

As for the Catholic laity, their disabili-
ties continued all this time in full force,
and Avhile a contemptous connivance was
thown to their religious Avorship, good
care Avas taken to debar them from all
profitable occupation, and to seize the
poor remnants of their property. Indeed,
the toleration of their worship Avas for
* Brennan's Eccl. Hist., p. 573.
t Ib.

the better securing of these latter objects:
it was knoAvn that men Avho went regu-
larly to mass Avould never take an oath
that the King of England is head of the
Church, or that the mass is a damnable
idolatry ; and these 08,ths formed the very
barrier Avhich fenced in all the rich and
fat things of the land for the Protestants,
and shut the Papists out. That obserA^ant
and honest English traveller, Arthur
Young, Avas so powerfully struck Avith this
true character of the Penal Laws, that in
his account of his tour he more than once
dAvells upon it Avith righteous indignation.
He says: — “But it seems to be the
meaning, Avish, and intent of the dis-
covery laAA's, that none of them (the
Irish Catholics) should ever be rich.
It is the principle of that system, that
Avealthy subjects AA'ould be nuisances ;
and therefore every means is taken to
reduce, and keep them to a state of
poverty. If this is not the intention
of these laws, they are the most abomin-
able heap of self-contradictions that ever
Avei’e issued in the Avorld. They are
framed in such a manner that no Catholic
shall have the inducement to become rich.
.... Take the laAvs and their execution
into one view, and this state of the case
is so true, that they actually do not seem
to be so much levelled at the religion, as
at the property that is found in it. . . .
The domineering aristocracy of five
hundred thousand Protestants feel the
SAveets of having tAVO millions of slaves ;
they have not the least objection to the
tenets of that religion Avhich keeps them
by the laAV of the land in subjection ; but
property and slavery are too incompatible
to live together : hence the special care
taken that no such thing should arise
among them.” — Youvfj's Tour in Ireland, Ami.
ii., p. 48.

In another place Mr. Young repeats : —
“ I have conversed on the subject Avith
some of the most distinguished characters
in the kingdom, and I cannot after all but
declare that the scope, purport, and aim
of the laAvs of discovery, as executed, are
not against the Catholic religion, lohich
increases under them, but against the
industry and property of Avhoever pro-
fesses that religion. In vain has it been
said, that consequence and poAvmr folloAv
property, and that the attack is made in
order to Avound the doctrine through its
property. If such Avas the intention, I
reply, that seventy years’ experience prove
the folly and futility of it. Those laAvs
have crushed all the industry, and Avrested
most of the property from the Catholics;
but the religion triumphs ; it is thought
to increase.” Readers may noAv under-

106

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Stand the nature and extent of that
vaunted toleration,” and the true intent
and purpose of it, such as it was— namely,
plunder.

CHAPTER XVI.

1707—1773.

Townshend, Viceroy.— Augmentation of the army.
— Embezzlement. — Parliament prorogued. —
Again prorogued. — Townshend buys his majority.
— Triumph of the “English Interest.” — New
attempt to bribe the Priests. — Townshend’s
“ Golden Drops.” — Bill to allow Papists to reclaim
bogs. — Townshend recalled. — Harcourt, Viceroy.—
Proposal to tax absentees. — Defeated. — Degraded
condition of the Irish Parliament. — American Re-
volution, and new era.

The history of Lord Townshend’s ad-
ministration, and of the two Avhich fol-
lowed, is unhappily little more than a
liistory of the most shameless corruption
and servility on the part of the Irish
1‘arliament, relieved, however, by some
examples of a rising national spirit in the
assertion of constitutional right. Very
early in the same session of Parliament.
Avhich had finally passed the Octennial
Bill, the attention of the House of Com-
mons was espec ally called to the con-
sideration of the army upon the Irish
establishment. A message from the lord-
lieutenant was sent to the House by the
hands of the Right Hon. Sir George
Macarteney, in which he informed the
Commons “ that it is his majesty’s judg-
ment that not less than 12,000 men
should be constantly kept in the island
for service, and that his majesty finding,
that, consistently with the general public
service, the number before mentioned
cannot always be continued in Ireland,
unless his army upon the Irish establish-
ment be augmented to 15,235 men in the
whole, commissioned and non-commis-
sioned officers included, his majesty is of
opinion, that such augmentation should
be immediately made, aiul earnestly re-
commends it to his faithful Commons to
concur in providing for a measure which
his majesty has extremely at heart, as
necessary not only for the honour of his
crown, but for the peace and security of
his kingdom.” The message was ordered
to be entered on the journals, and at the
same time a committee Avas appointed to
inquire into the state of the military es-
tablishment, and also into the application
of the money granted for its support from
the 25th March, 1751. The result of this
inquiry showed manifest misconduct, as

appears from the report at large, and the
returns thereunto annexed ; part of the
report is to the following effect :

Your committee beg leaA’-e to take
notice, that the entire reduction of the
army, after the conclusion of the peace,
did not take place till the latter end of the
year 1761 ; and that it appears from the
return of the quarter-master-general, that
there were great deficiencies in the several
regiments then upon the establishment, at
the several quarterly musters comprised
in the said paper, which precede the
month of January, 1765; the full pay of
such vacancies must amount to a very
large sum, and ought, as your committee
apprehends, to have been returned as a
saving to the public, especially as it ap-
peared to your committee, that orders
were issued by government, not to recruit
the regiments intended to be reduced.”
Upon the whole, it was resolved that an
address should be presented to his majesty,
to lay before him the report of the said
committee, to acknowledge his constant
attention to the welfare of the people, to
express the utmost confidence in his
majesty’s Avfisdom, that if uj)on such re-
presentation any reformation in the said
establishment should appear necessary to
his majesty, such alteration woukl be
made therein as Avould better provide for
the security of the kingdom, and at the
same time reduce the expense of the es-
tablishment in such a maimer as might be
more suitable to the circumstances of the
nation. The Government, hoAvever, was
able to secure a majority for their measure.
As Mr Plowden expresses it, “ Vainly did
the efforts of patriotism encounter the
exertions of the new system to keep indi-
viduals steady to their post on the Treas-
ury bench.”

The Parliament Avas noAv dissolved ;
and the first Octennial Parliament Avas to
be elected. There Avas an unusually long
interval of sixteen months from the disso-
lution of the old to the meeting of this
new Parliament. This interval Avas used
by the Court in establishing the “ neAv
system ; ” Avhich system Avas neither more
nor less than buying the iieople’s repre-
sentatives in detail, by direct negotiation
Avuth individuals, instead of contracting
for them by Avholesale Avith the four or
five noble “ Undertakers,” avIio owned
many boroughs, and influenced the OAvners
of many others. Lord ToAvnshend hoped
to render the concession of the Octennial
Act Avorse than mtgatory, and to create a
\\Q\v junta in support of the English interest,
independent of their former leaders. But
he had not yet so matured his plan as to
have insured the Avhole game. He had

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

107

not altered the nature, but only raised the
price of accommodation ; and, lavish as
the Irish have generally been of their
voices in Parliament to the highest bid-
der, there ever appear to have been some
cases reserved out of the bargain. Such
had been the reservation of right to vote
for limited Parliaments, in some of the
most obsequious devotees to the measures
of the Castle ; and such now was a simi-
lar exception in some of these pensioned
supporters to resist the right of the
English Council to make money bills ori-
ginate with them, and not with the Com-
mons of Ireland. On this point the British
Cabinet and the Irish House of Commons
came fairly to issue. The former deter-
mined to test the question in the most
direct way, by the origination of a money
bill in the Privy Council ; and the latter
resolved fairly to meet the issue. Ac-
cordingly, it was moved in the House of
Commons, that a bill, entitled “ An Act
for granting to His Majesty the several
Duties, Rates, Impositions, and Taxes,
therein particularly expressed, to be ap-
plied to the Payment of the Interest of the
Sums therein provided for and towards
the Discharge of the said principal Sums,”
should be read a second time on the day
following. This motion was negatived ;
and it was resolved that such bill was re-
jected, because it did not take its rise in
that House.

The lord-lieutenant, though he thought
proper to allow the Irish Parliament to
grant their own money in their own way,
protested against the right claimed by the
House of Commons, and endeavoured, but
in vain, to enter his protest upon their
journals. The House would not submit
to this encroachment upon their privi-
leges : the Lords were less inflexible, and
after much opposition and debate, his ex-
cellency’s protest was solemnly recorded
on the journals of the House of Peers.
But before that was done, it having been
generally suspected that such was his in-
tention, the following motion was made
in the House of Peers : “ That the
Speaker of this House be desired that no
protest of any person whomsoever, who is
not a lord of Parliament, and a member
of this House, and which doth not respect
a matter which had been previously in
question before this House, and wherein
the lord protesting had taken part with
the minority, either in person or by proxy,
be entered on the Journals of the House,”
After a warm debate upon this motion,
the question was negatived ux^on a divi-
sion of 30 against 5. j

Tlie 21st of November, 17G9, was a clay j
flxed for a trial of strength upon the I

English Privy Council’s money bill. The
motion being made that this bill be read a
first time, it was carried in the affirma-
tive ; and the bill being accordingly read,
a motion was made, and the question put,
that the bill be read a second time to-
morrow morning. The House divided:
ayes, sixty-eight ; noes, eighty-seven.
Then the motion, that the bill be rejected,
was put, and carried by ninety-four against
seventy-one ; and it was resolved, that the
said hill was rejected, because it did not take
its rise in that House. The lord-lieutenant
took this defeat in the Commons so much
to heart, that he resolved to bring no more
Government questions before them during
that session, or until he could, as the
Castle phrase then was, make more sure
of the king’s business. The representa-
tions which were made of this transaction
in England soon found their way into the
newspapers, and the night in Avhich Mr
Woodfall placed the majority of the Irish
House of Commons on that important
division in the Public Advertiser, fully
proved the general sentiment entertained
at the time in England upon the whole
system of the Irish Government.* On
the 18th day of December, 1769, amotion
was made, and carried without opposition,
that a paper entitled the Public Advertiser,
by H. S. Woodfall, London, December
the 9th, 1769, might be read. It con-
tained the following words : “Hibernian
I)atriotism is a transcript of that filthy idol
worshipped at the London Tavern ; inso-
lence, assumed from an opinion of impu-
Dity, usurps the which boldness

against real injuries ought to hold. The
refusal of the late bill, because it was
not brought in contrary to the practice of
ages, in violation of the constitution, and
to the certain ruin of the dependence of
Ireland upon Great Britain, is a behaviour
more suiting an army of Whiteboys tliau
the grave representatives of a nation
This is the most daring insult that has
been offered to Government. It must be
counteracted Avith firmness, or else the
state is ruined. Let the refractory House
be dissolved ; should the next cox>y their
example, let it also be dissolved ; and if
the same sxnrit of seditious obstinacy
should continue, I know no remedy but
one, and it is extremely obvious. The
Parliament of Great Britain is supreme
over its conquests as well as colonies, and
the service of the nation must not be left
undone, on account of the factious obsti-
nacy of a provincial assembly. Let our
legislature, for they have an undoubted
right, vote the Irish supi^lies, and so save
a nation, that their own obstinate repre-
* Journ. Com., vol. 8, p. 344.

108

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

sentatives endeavour to ruin.” The perfect
identity in tone and temper of this article
■with those of the Times at the present day
(when any manifestation of spirit in Ire-
land irritates the British public) makes it
■well worth preserving, to show how verj
little the English feeling towards Ireland
has varied or changed in a hundred years.
These paragraphs having been read, it
was resolved, that they were a false and
infamous libel upon the proceedings of
that House, a daring invasion of the Par-
liament, and calculated to create ground-
less jealousies between His Majesty’s
faithful subjects of Great Britain and
Ireland. It was therefore ordered that
the said paper should be burnt by the
hands of the common hangman. And on
the Wednesday following, viz., the 20th
December, the said paper was burned before
the gate of the House of Commons, by
the hands of the common hangman, in the
presence of the sheriffs of Dublin, amidst
the indignant shouts of an immense croAvd
of spectators, Avho loudly, though without
outrage, resented the insult offered to
their representatives.

It Avas evident that Lord ToAvnshend’s
new system of Government had not yet
been sufficiently perfected. There Avas a
neAvassault inpreparation duringthe month
of December, in this year, 17GD, against
the enormous pension-list, and although
he kneAv he could command a majority
upon that (ninety-eight being against the
agitation of the pension-list at that time,
and eighty-nine for it), still the majority
Avas too trifling to trust to, and a A'ictory
on such terms Avould have been a moral
defeat. He determined to prorogue the
House. This became knoAvn to the Com-
mons, and the country and the House, in
an address, requested that his excellency
Avould inform the House Avhether he had
any instructions or had any intention to
prorogue the Parliament sooner than
usual. Here again the lord-lieutenant
found his deficiency in doing the king’s
business : for upon a diA'ision on the main
question, the minister Avas left once more
in a greater minority than eA'er, there
being lOG for his excellency’s making the
declaration, and seventy-three only against
it. On the very next day, howcA^er, Sir
George Macarteney, the Secretary, re-
ported to the House that his excellency
had returned the folloAAung ansAA'er :

“ Gextleaiex, — I shall ah^-ays be de-
sirous of complying Avith your request,
Avhen I can do it Avith propriety. I do not
think myself authorised to "disclose his
majesty’s instructions to me upon any
subject, Avithout having received his ma-
jesty’s commands for so doing. With

regard to my intentions, they will be re-
gulated by his majesty’s instructions and
future events.” In fact, on the day after
Christmas, Lord ToAvnshend prorogued
the Parliament, at first only till the 20th
of March folloAA'ing. The lord-lieutenant
having experienced so much inflexibility
and difficulty in the management of the
Commons in the first session, fully re-
solved to meet them no more in Parlia-
ment, till they were properly marshalled,
and thoroughly broken in to every
manceuATe of the neAV tactics. His ex-
cellency, accordingly, by proclamation,
on the 12th March, 1770, prorogued them
to Tuesday, the 1st of May folloAving; on
the 20th April, 1770, he further prorogued
them to the 28th of August, and by three
other successiA’e proclamations he further
prorogued them to different periods, and
finally to the 2Gth February, 1771, then to
sit for dispatch of business. In the mean-
time affairs AA’ere falling into some confu-
sion ; seA^eral temporary acts Avhich re-
quired reneAval had expired ; the contest
in Ireland excited the sjmpathies of the
AA'hig party in England, and in May, 1770,
the Hon. Boyle Walsingham brought up
in Parliament at Westminster the AAffiole
subject of the late extraordinary proroga-
tions in Dublin, and moved for papers
connected thereAvith. Lord North, the
minister, of course, defended the proroga-
tions, AA'hich he said he had himself ad-
vised ; and declared the conduct of the
Irish Parliament to be contrary to Poyn-
ings’ LaAv, the grand bond of the
dependence of Ireland upon England.’'
The House divided upon the motion for
papers, AAhen GG A'oted for it, but 178
voted against all inquiry.

Lord ToAvnshend and his creatures Avere
not idle during the long Parliamentary
interi'egnum. It is painful to be obliged to
record, that his system of personal indi-
vidual corruption made good progress.
‘‘ Patriots ” Avere Avon OA'er to the adminis-
tration, among A\diom appeared conspicu-
ously, Mr Saxton Perry, member for
Limerick, Avho first received the support
of the GoA^ernment in being elected as
Speaker of the House, Avith a promise of a
peerage. IMany others had been secured,
some Avith money, some Avith honours ;
and in February, 1771, his excellency
faced the Parliament AA'ith full confidence,
AA'hich it soon appeared Avas not misplaced.
The first division Avas on an address of the
Commons to his majesty, in ansAver to the
lord-lieutenant's speech ; In this address
they returned their most humble thanks
to his majesty for graciously continuing
his excellency. Lord Townshend, in the
government of the kingdom. The slavish

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

100

address was opposed, but was carried by
132 against 107. Lord Townshend never
bad any further trouble in managing
Parliament and doing the king’s business.
Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker of the House,
however, refused to be the official medium
of presenting the servile address ; he re-
signed at once, requesting the House “ to
olect another Speaker, who may not think
such conduct inconsistent with his honour.”
Mr. Perry was thereupon elected. “And
the conduct and speech of Mr. Perry on this
occasion bespoke the forward zeal of a new
proselyte.”*

Having now secured his majority in
Parliament, the grand policy of Lord
Townshend Avas to do away with the effects
of the Patriotic votes in the last session,
and justify his own conduct in the proro-
gations. He was to make this Irish Par-
liament stultify itself and eat its own
words, and in all this he was eminently
successful. Nothing was permitted to
pass without a division, so as to parade
continually before the eyes of the people of
Ireland, and of his employers in England,
the thorough training in which the viceroy
had his Parliament at last. The Com-
mons, however — that is the remaining
Patriots in the House— made one last
effort, by moving an address to the king,
containing some pitiful remonstrances : —
as that “ his faithful Commons did con-
fidently hope that a law for securing the
independence of the judges of this king-
dom would have passed ; such a law hav-
ing been recommended and promised by
his excellency the lord-lieutenant, in a
speech from the throne in the first session
of his excellency’s government,” and
several other remonstrances of a like kind.
The address was ordered to be opposed,
and it was lost by a vote of 123 against 68.

Yet once more the viceroy’s well-drilled
ranks were to be paraded. In the address
of the Commons to the lord-lieutenant,
which was moved for and carried on the
16th of May, tAvo days only before the
prorogation, the Patriots objected to the
thanks contained in it for his excellency’s
just and prudent administration ; but on a
division they Avere outvoted by 106 against
51 ; this address, together Avith the king’s
answer to the address of the Commons to
the throne, Avas considered, by the Castle,
to have completely counteracted the Avhole
effect of the successful efforts of the Pat-
riots in the last session, and to have given
the express royal sanction to every part of
the viceroy’s conduct.

* Plowden. It should be remarked that this his-
torian wrote his first series in a spirit favourable to
the Union, and, therefore, has some propensity to
disparage the “ Patriots ” of the colony, and to point
out their hdlple&sness or venality.

Tlie address of the lords to the king con-
tained the following paragraph: “We
have the truest sense of many instances,
which your majesty has been pleased to
afford us of your paternal care, and par-
ticularly your continuing the Lord Vis-
count Townshend in the government of
this kingdom, of Avhich, as his experi-
ence enables him to form the truest
judgment, so his candour and integrity
Avill, Ave doubt not, move him to make
the justest representation.” A Avarm de-
bate took place upon the question being
put, that the said paragraph do stand part
of the address, Avhich Avas carried by
thirty against fifteen. A manly protest
was entered by sixteen peers, Avhose titles
deserve to be recorded. They Avere

Leinster (by proxy),

Westmeath,

Lanesborough,

Shannon,

Mornington,

Lisle,

Powerscourt,

Charlemont,

Baltinglass,
klount-Cashell,
Moira (by proxy),
Longford,

Louth,

Bective,

Molesworth,

Bellamont.

In this session Lord ToAvnshend proved,
by his two-thirds majority on no fewer
than seventeen divisions, that he could
noAV make that Parliament vote anything
he ordered, whether in matter of opinion
or matter of fact. He chose that there
should be no parliamentary inquiry, this
time, into finances and pensions, and ac-
cordingly there were not. It appears
evident, from the arguments of the still
uncorrupted Patriots of the Plouse of
Commons, from the protest of the six-
teen peers, from the state of the national
accounts still upon record, and from other
historical documents, that the national
debt of Ireland very heavily accumulated
during the administration of Lord Towns-
hend ; yet Ave find, that after the expe-
rience, which tAvo 3'^ears and a quarter had
given him of the inadequacy of the fiscal
resources of that kingdom to answer his
new plan of keeping up the English interest,
he refrained from calling on the Commons
for any supplies, alleging in his speech to
Parliament, on the 26th of February, 1771,
that with very strict economy, the duties
granted last session would be sufficient to
answer the expenses of his majesty’s
government ; and therefore he Avould ask
no further supply.

The confidence with Avhich Lord Towns-
hend met the Parliament in October, 1771,
was strongly displayed in his speech.
“ My experience,” said his excellency, “ of
your attachment to his majesty’s person,
and of your zeal for the public serAuce,
affords me the best-grounded hopes, that
nothing will be Avanting on your part to

110

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

co-operate 'svith his majesty’s gracious in-
tentions to promote the welfare and happi-
ness of this kingdom, and when to this
consideration I add my remembrance of
your kind regard for the ease and honour
of my administration, I feel the most
sensible pleasure in the present oppor-
tunity, which his majesty has given me, of
meeting you a fourth time in Parliament,”
Notwithstanding his boasted economy,
which prevented his aijplication to the
Commons for any further supply last
session, he now told them “ that it was with
concern that he must ask a sum of money
to discharge the arrears already incurred
on his majesty’s establishments, but that
they would find they had been unavoid-
able ; for that the strictest economy had
been used,” etc. Another part of the
lord-lieutenant’s speech on the opening of
this Parliament, referred to the illegal as-
sociations and outrages of the " Hearts of
Steel ” in the North of Ireland, The
violence of these people had greatly in-
creased and extended to other counties
than those in which the society had first
appeared. They exacted oaths by force,
maltreated obnoxious individuals, and de-
stroyed houses. Some of them were taken
and tried at Carrickfergus ; but whether
from want of evidence, from fear of in-
curring the resentment of the populace,
or from partiality in the witnesses and
the jury, they were acquitted. On this
account the legislature passed an act, by
which all persons indicted of such offences
were ordered to be tried in counties
different from those in which the excesses
Avere committed. In consequence, several
of the Steel Boys, against whom exami-
nations had been taken, were carried to
Dublin and put upon their trial. But so
strong was the prejudice conceived against
this neAV la^r, that no jury there Avould
find any of them guilty. It Avill be remem-
bered that these rioters Avere all Protes-
tants, as Avere also all the jurors Avho tried
them. If they had been Catholics, there
AA’ould have been no difficulty in in Aun-
dicating the laAv, The obnoxious act,
hoAvever, Avas repealed, and after that
many convictions and executions took
place. The effects, not of the riots, but
of the oppressions Avhich produced them,
Avere for a long time prejudicial to the
country, and the emigration to America
Avas rcncAved to a greater extent than
CA'er before.

The session passed in an unbroken
series of servile divisions in favour of every
thing the Castle Avished ; against every
thing the Castle disliked. In the address
to the king occurred these Avords, “ AYe
arc fully persuaded that the sui)jport of

your majesty’s government is the great
and firm basis of the freedom and happi-
ness of this country,” A Patriot ventured
on an amendment, that before the A\mrd
support, the Avord constitutional should be
inserted ; it aa^is negatived by a vote of
eighty-eight against thirty-six. During
this administration Ave find by the jour-
nals mentioning the tellers upon the
different divisions, that three of the most
forward and constant supporters of CA^ery
government question AA*ere Mr, Monk
Mason, jMr, Poster, and Mr, Pitzgibbon;
and the truth or falsity of the propositions
little availed, provided it Avere made a
government question. Thus, besides the
instances already adduced, aa'c find upon
the journals (8 vol, iii,) the folloAving
resolution negatived on the 8th of IMarch,
17G6: ‘‘That it be resolved, that the
office of a commissioner of his majesty’s
revenue Avould be better executed by a
person resident in this kingdom, than by
an absentee,” During this session of
1772, died Dr, Lucas, AA'hom, from his
first entrance into political life, no pro-
mises or offers could seduce from untain-
ted patriotism. The citizens of Dublin
erected his statue in the exchange. The
remainder of Lord ToAvnshend’s adminis-
tration passed OA^er AA’ithout any notable
incident. No legislatHe measure Avas
adopted either for or against the Catholics,
but his lordship could not retire from
a situation Avhich he had held in Ireland
for five years Avithout giving some proof of
his attachment to the Protestant religion.

A provision had been made by the 8tli
of Anne, that every Popish priest aaLo
should become Protestant, and be ap-
proved of as a convert, should have -£30
yearly for his maintenance, until pro-
vided for by some ecclesiastical prefer-
ment beyond that amount. But by an
act of this session it AA^as recited, that it
had been found by experience that the
former act had not ansAA ered the purposes
intended, especially as the provision made
as aforesaid for such Popish priests is in
no respect a sufficient encouragement for
Popish priests to become converts; it AA'as
therefore enacted that £40 should in
future be alloAA’ed annuallj", in lieu of £30,
to OA'Ory Popish priest conA'erted, The
multiplication of these alloAvances up to
the height of the most proselytizing zeal
could not interfere Avith the civil list of
pensioners, as these spiritual douceurs AA-ere
to be levied on the inhabitants of the
district AA'herein the coiwert last resided.
These additional pittances of £10 Avere
called by the Irish Townshend’s golden drops.
They Avere not found more efficacious
than the former prescription.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

in

This act for the encouragement of
converts to the Protestant religion Avas
also, in some measure, deemed necessary
to counterbalance the effects of another
act made in the same session, supposed to
be very favourable to the Catholics, and
Avhich in times of less liberality had been
repeatedly thrown out of Parliament, as
tending to encourage Popery to the detri-
ment and prejudice of the Protestant
religion. This was An Act. to Encourage
the Reclaiming of Unprojitahle Bogs, and re-
cites that there were large tracts of deep
nogs in several counties of the kingdom,
which in their then state were not only
unprofitable, but by their damps rendered
the air unwholsome ; and it had been
found by experience that such bogs were
capable of improvement, and of being
converted into arable or pasture land, if
encouragement were given to the lower
class of people to apply their industry to
the reclaiming of them. It therefore
enacted, that notAvithstanding the laAvs
then in force, any Catholic might be at
liberty to take a lease of fifty plantation
acres of such bog, and one half an acre
of arable land adjoining thereto, as a site
for a house, or for the juirpose of delving
for gravel or limestone, for manure, at
such rent as should be agreed upon be-
tween him and the OAvner of the soil, as
also from ecclesiastical or other bodies
corporate ; and for further encouragement,
the tenant Avas to be free for the first
seven years from all tithes and cesses ;
but it Avas provided, that if half of the
bog demised Avere not reclaimed at the
end of tAventy-one years, the lease should
be void ; and no bog Avas to be considered
unprofitable, unless the depth of it from
the surface, Avhen reclaimed, Avere four
feet at least ; and no person Avas to be
entitled to the benefit of the act, unless
he reclaimed ten plantation acres; and
the act Avas not to extend to any bog
Avithin one mile of a city or market toAvn.

The provisions of this act gi\'e us a
clearer idea than any laboured disquisition
could do of the depressed condition of the
Catholics of that day, and of the manner
in Avhich they were regarded by the
colonists — “ Patriots ” and all.

Lord ToAvnshend’s administration Avas
draAA'ing to a close ; and he had done his
Pritish errand Avell. No viceroy had yet
succeeded in establishing in Ireland such
profound demoralization and debasement.

The baneful example of the chief
governor’s marshalling the ranks of Par-
liament encouraged the already too deeply
rooted princii)al of despotism throughout
the nation. Not only the great lords and
real owners of land exercised in general I

a most ferocious rule over their inferiors,,
but that obnoxious race of self-created
gentlemen whose consequence and virtue
consisted in not being Papisfs, and whose
loyalty Avas mere lust for persecuting
and oppressing them, Avere uncontrollable
in their petty tyranny. Even the lord-
lieutenant was so sensible of it, that being
resolved to pardon a Catholic gentleman
unjustly found guilty, he Avithdrew the
hand of mercy, with this reflection : I

see them resolved upon his blood, so ho
may as Avell go noAv.”

In his farewell speech to Parliament,
this able British agent sarcastically com-
plimented the miserable crew, over whom
he had so often shaken his A\diip — “I
have upon every occasion endeavoured, to
the utmost of my poAver, to promote the
public serAuce, and I feel the most perfect
satisfaction in noAv repeating to you my
acknoAvledgements for the very honourable
manner in Avhich (after a residence of
near five years amongst you) you have
declared your entire approbation of my
conduct. Be assured that I shall ahvays
entertain the most ardent Avishes for your
Avelfare, and shall make a faithful repre-
sentation to his majesty of your loyalty
and attachment to his royal person and
government.

On the whole, Ave cannot but acquiesce
in the cruel judgment passed upon the
Irish Parliament by the Avorthy Dr. Camp-
bell,* at the moment Avhen Lord ToAvns-
hend retired, and gaA'e place to his
successor, Lord Harcourt — ‘‘ Lord Ilar-
court then found the Parliament of Irelana
as obsequious as that of Great Britain.” It
Avould be impossible to use a stronger
expression.

When Lord Harcourt assumed the
government, in October, 1772, he had
little to do but to continue the system Avhicli
his predecessor had Avith so much per-
severance, difficulty, and charge to the
finance, regularly established, according
to his instructions from the British
cabinet. In order, therefore, to give
continuance and stability to the ncAV
English interest, Avhich had been raised
upon the partial destruction of tiie Irish
oligarchy, as Lord Clive observed, a man
Avas chosen of amiable character, easy
disposition, and of no other ambition than
to move by the direction, and thus ac-
quire the approbation of, his immediate
employers. With the active labour of
office, he considered that he also threAv
the burden of responsibility upon the

* “ Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland.”
This is the work of an honest and liberal man,
though not so valuable as the Tour of Arthur
Young.

112

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

secretar}'. He had been nearly twelve
months in the government of Ireland
before he met the Parliament, on the 12th
of October, 1773.

The first stand made by the Patriots
was upon an alarm at the intention of
Government, in laying the public accounts
before the House, to hold back some of
the documents which would too palpably
bring to light the means used by the last
viceroy for insuring a majorit}’- to do the
Icing's business. After the House had or-
dered the different accounts and estimates
to be laid before it, an amendment was
proposed to add these words : “ As far as
there are materials for that purpose. A
division took place, and the amendment
was carried by 88 against 52. Thus it
was left in the discretion of the clerks, or
rather of the Government, to bring for-
ward or hold back what materials they
chose.

Lord Harcourt’s administration is re-
markable for the first proposal to impose
an absentee-tax on non-resident Irish
landlords. This proposal came from the
crown ; and it was to the effect that a tax
of two shillings in the pound should be
laid on the nett rental of landed property
in Ireland, to be paid by all persons who
should not reside in that kingdom for six
months in each year, from Christmas,
1773, to Christmas, 1775. The proposal
being against the interest of England,
was evidently not sincere on the part of
Government : all officials were left at
perfect liberty to support it or not :
the interest of the great landlords was
against it ; and the only wonder was that
it was defeated by so small a majority,
122 against 102.

But we have now arrived at an epoch in
the history of the world from which many
things in modern history take their de-
parture. It has been thought needful to
go into some detail to show the miserable
and abject condition of Ireland at this
precise period, in order to make more
apparent the wonderful change soon pro-
duced by the reflection and reverberation
of the great American revolution.

CHAPTER XVII.

1771—1777.

American affairs. — Comparison l)ctween Ireland and
the Colonies. — Contagion of American opinions in
Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics. —
Congress at Philadelphia. — Address of Congress
to Ireland. — Encouragement to Fisheries. — 4000
“ armed negotiators.” — Financial distress. — First
Octennial Parliament dissolved. — Grattan. — Lord
lluckiugham, Viceroy. — Successes of the Ameri-
cans.

The American “ Stamp Act ” had been
passed in 1765, just while the Irish Par-

liament was in the midst of its struggle
for limited Parliaments and against the
pension list. The next year the Stamp
Act had been repealed, but had been
soon followed by the attempt to impose
“port duties.” The steady organized re-
sistance of the Americans had caused the
British ministry to relinquish these port
duties also, except the duty on tea, in the
year 1770. The question between the
mother-country and the colonies being
thus reduced to a matter of threepence
per pound on tea, the colonists being once
aroused, having laid down the principle,
“No taxation without representation,”
would not pay that threepence. A year
after Lord Harcourt came to Ireland as
viceroy, the people of Boston emptied a
cargo of taxed tea into the harbour of that
port ; and in the course of the following
year, 1774, Edmund Burke made one of
his first celebrated speeches, in favour
of a repeal of the tea duty, in the British
Parliament. The motion had been made
by Mr. Fuller, member for Rye, but failed,
though it was supported by the eloquence
of Burke; and the House, we are told,
was very much amused and delighted by
the ingenious declamation of that extra-
ordinary orator, while he eulogized his
friend. Lord Rockingham and his govern-
ment, and ridiculed in his peculiar style
the present cabinet — “ An administration
so checkered and speckled, a piece of
joinery so crossly indented and whimsi-
cally dovetailed ; a cabinet so variously
inlaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic,
such a tessellated pavement without ce-
ment, here a bit of black stone, there a
bit of white,” etc. But though there was
much laughter and cheering, the motion
to repeal the tea duty Avas lost on a divi-
sion of 184 against 51. If it be any
comfort to us, the fact is certain that the
British Parliament of that day was fully
as servile as the Irish, and A^ery much
more stupid.

It Avas evident that the last resort of
Avar had nearly arrived; and the very
strong analogies Avhich existed betAveeii
the American colonies and the Irish
colony Avere quite sufficient to occasion
in the latter country not only an intense
interest, but a deep sympathy also in the
American struggle. The situation of the
tAvo countries Avas not indeed precisely
alike. The North American colonies had
had never pretended to be a kingdom, as
the English colony in Ireland did. Ire-
land Avas not taxed absolutely Avithout
representation, although the dependent
position of her Parliament, under Poyn-
ing’s LaAV, made her representation quite
illusory for any eflicient security. The

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

113

American colonists were then about three
millions in number ; the Irish, only half
a million — for the two millions of Catho-
lics Avere not counted as members of the
body ijolitic. Ireland Avas AA'ithin easy
reach and striking distance of the com-
mon enemy, and America Avas divided
from her by three thousand miles of
ocean — no trilling advantage in the days
Avhen steam navigation Avas not. Above
all, America had this one great and signal
adA'antage OA^er Ireland, that the colonists,
though of different religions,Avere all equal
before the laAv, and felt themselves equally
concerned in the common interest. They
Avere also all armed and accustomed to
the use of Aveapons, Avhile in Ireland the
penal laAvs had effectually disarmed and
reduced to a state of utter helplessness
four-fifths of the entire population.

There Avas, hoAvever, quite sufficient
resemblance betAveen the cases of the tAvo
countries to disquiet Lord North’s ad-
ministration very considerably. The
minister, therefore, Avisely, though si-
lently, instructed the lord-lieutenant to
endeavour by all means to soothe and
engage the affections of the Catholics by
gradual relaxations of the rigorous code
of penalties, pains, and disabilities, under
Avhich they had so long and so patiently
suffered. As early, therefore, in the
session as the 10th of November, 1773,*
leave Avas given to bring in the heads of
a bill to secure the repayment of money
that should be really lent and advanced
by Papists to Protestants on mortgages
of lands, tenements, and hereditaments ;
and that it might be understood to be a
Government measure of grace, Mr. Mason,
Sir Lucias O’Brien, and Mr. Langrishe,
great and determined supporters of
Government, Avere ordered to bring itin.f
On the preceding day leave had been given
to bring in heads of a bill to enable
Papists, upon certain terms and provisoes,
to take leases of lives, of lands, tenements,
and hereditaments ; but neither one
or the other of these bills at that time
proceeded. The Irish antipathies to
Popery, and the reluctance of most men
in place or power m Ireland to do justice
to the Catholics, deterred the easy
mind of Lord Harcourt from pushing
forAvard Avhat they persuaded him
would create difficulties and dis-
turbances in Parliament, and inter-
rupt that easy and quiet majority Avhich
Government then enjoyed, and Avhich he
had it strongly in command to keep up
by all possible and prudent means. Al-
though the managers of the English
interest in Ireland (this lord-lieutenant
* 9 Cora. Journ., p. 28. t Ibid., p. 27.

was but their passive tool) had blasted
these tAvo scions of indulgence in their
first shoot, yet the British ministry sent
over positive and uncontrollable orders
that some act of the legislature should
positively be passed in that session, of a
soothing and conciliatory tendency to the
Catholics, well imagining that the breadth
of the Atlantic Avonld not prevent the in-
fection of political discontent in persons
equally suffering a dei)i’i\'ation of that
nutriment and support Avhich their con-
stitution required for the preservation of
their existence. On the oth of March,
1771, therefore, leave Avas given to bring
in a bill to enable his majesty’s subjects,
of Avhatever persuasion, to testify their
allegiance to him ; and as tlie bill re-
mitted no part of the then existing code
of severity, but accorded merely a per-
mission to the Catholics of expressing
their allegiance to their sovereign, Avhicli
before they had not, it passed both
Houses Avithout obstruction or opposition.
Of this measure, paltry as it Avas, and
even insulting, a\ hen coupled Avith the re-
jection of the bills to alloAv Catholics to
take mortgages or leases, JMr. PloAvden
obserA-es — “ It gratified the Catholics, in-
asmuch as it Avas a formal recognition
that they Avere subjects, and to this re-
cognition they looked up as to the corner-
stone of their future emancipation.”

It cannot fail to strike every reader
that Avhatever miserable indulgences,
tolerations, or connivances Avere extended
to the Catholics during all the era of the
penal laAvs, Avere carefully calculated to
prevent them from getting any hold upon
the land. Thus they Avere iioav permitted
to testify allegiance if they chose, but
could in no case take a mortgage on real
estate, because mortgages are often fore-
closed, and the mortgagee becomes en-
titled to the land. They might attend
mass, but could by no means be alloAved
to have a lease for lives. Mr. Burke, in
a letter Avritten in 1775,* ascribes this
policy not so much to the greedy deter-
mination of Protestants to oavii all the
Avealth of the kingdom as to mere
arrogance and insolence. He says,
“ Prom Avhat I have obserA^ed, it is pride,
arrogance, a sjAirit of domination, and not
a bigoted spirit of religion, that has
caused and kept up those oppressiA^e
statutes. I am sure I have knoAvn those,
Avho have oppressed Papists in their civil
rights, exceedingly indulgent to them in
their religious ceremonies ; and Avho
Avished them to continue, in order to
furnish pretences for oi)pression ; and avIio
never saAv a man by conforming escape
* Letter to an Irish Peer.

II

lU

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

out of their power, but with grudging and
regret. I have known men, to whom I
am not uncharitable in saying, though
they are dead, that they would become
Papists in order to oppress Protestants,
if being Protestants it was not in their
power to oppress Papists.” But avIio-
soever has read the narrative of events
down to the time at which we are now
arrived, will scarcely resist the conclusion
that the controlling idea in all the policy
of the Ascendency was simple greediness.

jMeanwhile the dispute with America
was very fast approaching the arbitre-
ment of war. The first general Congress
had been opened in Philadelphia on the
4th of September, 1774. All eyes in Ire-
land were turned to this impending
struggle, and the obvious community of
interest which Ireland had with those
Transatlantic colonies, made their case
the theme of conversation in private
circles, as well as of debates in Parlia-
ment. The attention of the country was
still more strongly aroused when the Con-
tinental Congress, amongst other forcible
addresses issued at this time, directed one
to the “ People of Ireland.”

“ We are desirous of the good opinion
of the virtuous and humane. We are pe-
culiarly desirous of furnishing you Avith
the true state of our motives and objects ;
the better to enable you to judge of our
couduct Avith accuracy and determine the
merits of the controA'ersy Avith impar-
tiality and precision. Your Parliament
had done us no Avrong. You had ever
been friendly to the rights of mankind ;
and Ave acknowledge Avith pleasure and
gratitude that your nation has produced
patriots Avho have nobly distinguished
themselves in the cause of humanity
and America.” In fact, most of the lead-
ing members of the opposition in both
countries (avIio afterAvards composed that
administration Avhich put an end to the
American Avar) opposed the Avar upon
princiide ; they inveighed against the
unconstitutional exactions of the ministry,
and in their debates AA^ent A'ery little short
of formally justifying the American re-
bellion. The analogy betAveen America
and Ireland Avas too close to pass unno-
ticed ; and the defection of the American
colonies produced strong effects upon
Ireland. The exportation of Irish linen
for America had been A'ery considerable ;
but now this great source of national
Avealth Avas totally shut up, by an extra-
ordinary stretch of prerogatiA'e. Under
the pretext of preAmnting the Americans
from being supiffied Avith proAusions from
this country, an embargo Avas laid on the
exportation of provisions from Ireland,

AAUich in prejudicing that kingdom, served'
only to faA'our the adventures of British
contractors. This embargo, combined
AA'ith other causes, Avhich Avere invariable
and permanent, produced the most melan-
choly effects. Wool and black cattle fell
considerably in A'alue, as did also land •
and rents in many places could scarcely
be collected, so much Avas public credit
essentially injured. In short, it AA'as
again judged necessary, in jDresence of
these exciting questions of America, to
do something for poor Ireland,” as the
phrase then ran.

The nature of the benefit, hoAvever, Avas
to be considered, and nothing could seem
better adopted than a donation, Arhich
Avould be an advantage instead of a loss
to the gh^er. It Avas not itself very con-
siderable, but it might be considered as a
beginning ; and small benefits carry
Aveigbt Avith those Avho haA'e not been
habituated to great favours. It had been
shoAvn to the British Parliament, that the
exports from England to Ireland amoun-
ted then to £2,400,000 annually; besides
the latter supported a large standing
army, at all times ready for the defence
of the former ; and immense sums of her
ready cash Avere spent in England by
her numerous absentees, pensioners, and
placemen ; yet by oppressiA'e restrictions
in trade, Ireland Avas cut off from the
benefit of her great natural staple com-
modity, as Avell as excluded from the
advantage that she might derive from the
peculiarity of her situation.

The British minister, on the 11th of
October, 1775, moA'ed for a committee of
the Avhole House to consider the encour-
agement \ roper to be giA'en to the fisher-
ies of Great Britain and Ireland.* This
attention to Ireland was generally ap-
proved of, and after some conversation on
the hardships that country suffered, it
Avas proposed by IMr. Burke to extend
the motion, by adding the AA'ords ‘‘ trade
and commerce ; ” and thereby afford an
opportunity to grant such relief and
indulgence in those exports, as might be
done Avithout prejudice to Great Britain.
The minister objected to this ; hoAvever,

* An English minister was always obliged to be
extremely cautious in approaching any meisure for
the encouragement of the Irish tisheries. It was
in the reign of William the Third that certain fish-
ermen in Folkestone and Aldborough, in the south
of England, presented mournful petitions to Parlia-
ment, stating that they suffered “from Ireland by
the Irish catching herrings at Waterford and Wex-
ford ! and sending them to the Straits, and thereby
forestalling and ruining the petitioners’ markets.”
These impudent fishermen had, as Hutchison says,
the hard lot of having motions which were made in
tlieir favour, rejected. — See the Commercial Re-
straints, p. 126.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

115

the committee in its progress granted
several bounties to the ships of Great
Britain and Ireland, for their encourage-
ment in prosecuting the Newfoundland
fishery ; and it was further resolved in
favour of Ireland, that it should be lawful
to export from thence clothes and ac-
coutrements for such regiments on the
Irish establishment as were employed
abroad : and, also, that a bounty of five
shillings per barrel should be allowed on
all flax seeds imported into Ireland. This
last resolution was passed to prevent the
evils that were apprehended there, from
the cutting off their great American
source of supply in that article. Another
resolution Avas also passed, by which Ire-
land was allowed to export provisions,
hooks, lines, nets, and tools for the
implements of the fishery. The com-
mittee also agreed to the granting of
bounties for encouraging the whale fish-
ery in those seas that Avere to the south-
Avard of Greenland and Davis’s Straits
fisheries : and, upon the same principle,
took off tlie duties that AA'ere payable upon
the importation of oil, blubber, and bone,
from NeAvfoundland, etc. They also took
off the duty that Avas payable upon the
importation of seal skins.

A part of the policy of this petty
measure Avas to give to Ireland some
portion of the benefits of Avhich the war
Avould deprive America. Mr. Burke, on
this occasion, Avhile he tiianked Lord
North for the trifling boon to his country,
took occasion to say “ that hoAvever
desirous he might be to promote any
scheme for the advantage of Ireland
he Avould be much better pleased that the
benefits thus held out should never be
realized, than that Ireland should profit
at the expense of a country Avhich Avas, if
possible, yore oppressed than herself.”

But, strong as Avas the sympathy
betAveen Ireland and America, and
earnestly as the mass of the people — both
Catholic and Protestant — Avished success
to the patriotic colonists, the GoA^ernment
Avas determined to place the tAvo oppressed
countries as far as possible in a xtosition
of, at least, apparent antagonism. With
thisvioAv, Lord Harcourt, in the year 1775
— just as hostilities had commenced at
Lexington — demanded the services of four
thousand men, out of the tAvelve thousand
Avhich then constituted the effective force
of regular troops in Ireland, to be dis-
patched to America, for duty there. At
the same time, the lord-lieutenant said it
was his gracious Majesty’s intention to
supply the place of the four thousand
men Avith foreign Protestant soldiers — in
short, with Hessians. The Court party.

which was noAV, on most questions, irre-
sistible (though there were reserved ques-
tions, as the origination of money-bills),
carried the measure for granting the four
thousand men, on the terms that they
should not be a charge to the Irish revenue
while serving abroad. There was much
objection made by the Patriots, to sending
these troops “ to cut the throats of the
Americans and there Avere many ex-
pressions of sympathy andrespect towards
the colonists, in the course of the debate ;
but the measure Avas carried. Mr. Flood,
indeed, Avhose conduct is not clear of the
imputation of corruption, voted to send
the four thousand men “as armed negotia-
tors ” — such Avas his cold and cruel ex-
pression.*

But although the Irish Parliament gave
these troops, it Avould not accept the Hes-
sians. Much to the surprise and em-
barrassment of Government, the second
proposition for introducing foreign troops
into that kingdom Avas negatived by'
nearly as large a majority as the first Avas
carried ; namely, by lOG against G8.
The House, accordingly, A'oted an ad-
dress to his excellency, expressive of their
sense and resolution upon this subject,
and stating “that, A\ith the assistance
of the Government, his majesty’s loyal
people of Ireland may be able so to exert
themseh'es as to make such aid at this
juncture unnecessary.” This conduct of
the Irish Commons is of singular im-
portance in the History of Ireland, inas-
much as it Avas the first patriotic step
taken by the representatives of the peo])le
toAvards attaining that state of civil
liberty Avhich Avas obtained by the nation
in Avhat Mr. Burke called “ their revolu-
tion of 1782.” In truth, the address to
Lord Harcourt, in Avhich the legislature
promised for the peojile that they Avould
exert themselves^ and make foreign soldiers
unnecessary, already distinctly fore-
shadoAved the volunteering.

When the four thousand troops Avere
designated for this American service, an

* In the tremendous phillipic pronounced by
Grattan against Flood, in 1783, he thus deals -with
Mr. Flood’s vote of 1775 ; “ With regard to the lib-
erties of America, Avhich were inseparable from ours,

I will suppose this gentleman to have been an
enemy decided and unreserved ; and that he voted
against her liberty, and voted, moreover, for an ad-
dress to send four thousand Irish troops to cut the
throats of the Americans ; that he called these
butchers ‘ armed negotiators ; ’ and stood, 'with a
metaphor in his mouth and a bribe in his pocket, a
champion against the rights of America, the only
hope of Ireland, and the only refuge of the libertio.s
of mankind.” — (Select Speeches of Grattan, Duffy’s
edition, p. 104.)

The allusion to the “bribe” meant that Flood
had lately accepted an office under Lord Harcourt’s
administration.

116

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

honourable action deserves to be recorded :
the Earl of Effingham, finding that the
regiment in which he served was destined
to act against the colonies, thought it in-
consistent with his character and unbecom-
ing his dignity to enforce measures with
his sword which he had condemned in his
legislative capacity. He therefore wrote
a letter to the Secretary at War, resign-
ing his command in the army, and stating
his reasons for it. This conduct rendered
that nobleman extremely popular, and the
city of Dublin, at the Midsummer quarter
assembly, voted public thanks to Lord
Effingham. “ for having, consistently with
the principles of a true Englishman,
refused to draw his sword against the
lives and liberties of his fellow-subjects
in America.” Soon after, an address of
thanks, in fuller terms, was presented to
him from the guild of merchants of
Dublin : the latter also presented an
address of thanks to the several peers,
Avho (as they said) “ in support of the
constitution, and in opposition to a weak
and wicked administration, protested
against the American Restraining Bills.”
This address, with the several answers of
the lords to whom it was presented,
appeared at that time in the public papers,
and produced a very strong sensation
throughout the nation. But on the other
hand, we find that great Irish Whig,
Lord Rawdon, afterwards Lord IMoira,
serving zealously in America against the
rebels ; and it is not without a feeling of
shame that Irishmen can ever read on
that same list the name of Lord Edward
Fitzgerald.

The remainder of Lord Ilarcourt’s
administration was occupied mainly with
parliamentary troubles about money bills.
Heads of a bill were sent to England,
granting certain duties for the public
service. The bill was altered by the
Privy Council, and Avhen it came back it
was rejected on that express ground.
The Patriotic party, then, finding them-
selves supported on these financial ques-
tions by several members on the opposite
side of the House, determined to try their
strength upon a motion for an address to
the king, setting forth in candid and
striking terms the unhappy state of the
nation. This motion Avas made tAvo days
before the end of the session. The address,
after the usual preamble declaring loyal
duty and devotion, stated that at tlie
close of the last war the debt of the
nation did not exceed £521,101, 16s. Gc/. :
tliat after a peace of ten years the debt
Avas found to be £991,890, 10s. lOt/. — “ a
circumstance so alarming and insuppor-
table to his people, that they determined

Avith one Amice to put an end to the per-
nicious practice of accumulating debts,
and they thought it their duty to accom-
plish that necessary end by first endea-
voring to raise the revenue of the kingdom
to an equality Avith the establishment.”
They said that economy Avas promised ;
that there had been no economy, but a
continual increase in the expenses. They
added, that could they neglect the most
essential interests of themsehms, their
constituents, and their posterity, still
their duty to his majesty would prevent
them from suffering the resources of his
majesty's poAver and dignity to dAvindle
and decay ; and that they Avere the more
necessitated to make that earnest appli-
cation, because the evils they suffered
Avere not temporary or occasional ; because
they could not attribute them to any
physical evil, or proud national exertion,
but to a silent, Avasting, and inA’isible
cause, Avhich had injured the people,
Avithout adding strength to the croAvn.
That they therefore performed that in-
dispensable duty of laying their distresses
at the foot of the throne, that history
might not report them a nation Avhich
in the midst of peace, and under a gracious
king, equally ready to Avarn and relieve,
proceeded deliberately to their OAvn ruin,
Avithout one to appeal to the wisdom Avhich
Avould have redressed them. And so they
appealed from the temporary expedients
of his majesty’s ministers to his oaaui
Avisdom and virtues, and to that perman-
ent interest Avhich his majesty had, and
ever Avould have, in the Avelfare of his
people.

This address Avas extremely respectful,
CA’cn to serAulity. But though it did not
mention the exorbitant pension-list, nor
the universal corruption and bribery
Avhich then Avere carried on by means of
the public money, it told too much truth,
and Avas too undeniable to be endured.
Therefore the Government made a point
of defeating it, and succeeded. An ad-
dress Avas carried in its place, thanking
the lord-lieutenant ‘‘ for his prudent,
just, and Avise administration.”

The first Octennial Parliament had
scarcely lived four years, Avhen the Bri-
tish cabinet found it expedient that it
should be dissolved. This Parliament
had, during the last session, in tAvo instan-
ces opposed their mandates, and Avhen
summoned to attend the House of Peers,
the Commons, through their Speaker,
made a just but ungracious and ineffec-
tual representation of the state of that
nation. These symptoms of independence
alarmed the Government, and created a
diffidence in the steadiness of those Avho

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

117

had enlisted under their banners. They
looked to more steady submission in a
future Parliament, and dissolved the
present. Mr. Perry was re-elected Speaker
by a majority of 141 to 98. The lord-
lieutenant did not meet the new Parlia-
ment, which was convened in June, 1776,
pro forma, and by several prorogations
went over to the 14th of October, 1777.
This Parliament now dissolved is memor-
able for ever in the history of Ireland
for the first appearance of one of the
greatest patriots who ever arose for the
salvation of any people — and the Avord
patriot is not here used in its merely
colonial sense. This was Henry Grattan.
He was the deecendant of a powerful and
influential family, of whom Dean Swift
had said, “ the Grattans can raise ten
thousand men.” His father was recorder
of Dublin. Henry Grattan entered Par-
liament as member for Lord Charlemont’s
borough of Charlemont, on the borders of
Armagh and Tyrone ; he was then under
thirty years of age, and in his first Par-
liament had been modest and retiring,
acquainting himself with the details of
public business, and with the forms of
the House. It was not until the meeting
of the new Parliament, under the admini-
stration of Lord Buckinghamshire, that
Grattan’s lofty character and splendid
genius became known to his countrymen
and to the world.

The British cabinet was little satisfied
with the administration of Lord Har-
court ; the easy and delicate turn of his
mind ill qualified him to support, much
less to improve upon, the system of his
predecessor, but by which alone, to the
infamy and misfortune of Ireland, the
legislators of that kingdom were to be
kept steady in their ranks under the
command of the Castle. Although Gov-
ernment, upon the whole, still retained a
majority, yet several of their adherents
had occasionally, during the last session,
proved recreant from their instructions ;
some had deserted their ranks, many
amongst them wavered, menaced, and
complained of the terms of their engage-
ments. It was therefore resolved to in-
vigorate the new system by the election
of a new Parliament. For this purpose
an unusual, and till that time unprece-
dented, number of promotions in the
peerage took place in one day. It far ex-
ceeded the famous promotion of twelve in
the days of Queen Anne. Five viscounts
were advanced to earldoms, seven barons
to be viscounts, and eighteen new barons
were created in the same day. The usual
terms of such modern peerages are well
understood to be an engagement to

support the cause of their promoters by
their individual votes in the House of
Peers, and by those of their substitutes
in the House of Commons, whose seats
are usually settled and arranged before
they vacate them upon their promotions.
In short, every possible precaution was
adopted to seoure a subservient Irish
Parliament in the crisis which had been
created by the American war. But in
the very month of October, in which the
new viceroy. Lord Buckinghamshire, met
the new Parliament, General Burgoyne
was surrrendering his army of 7,000 men
to the Americans at Saratoga. The next
year France declared for America. The
administration, therefore, of this neAV
lord-lieutenant dates a neAv era in the
history of Ireland and of the earth. The
English colony in Ireland suddenly, and
for a short time, takes the proportions of
a nation.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1777—1779.

Buckingham, Viceroy.— Misery, and Decline of
Trade. — Discipline of Government Supporters. —
Lord North’s first Measure in favour of Catholics.
— Passed in England.— Opposed in Ireland.—
What it amounted to. — Militia Bill. — The Volun-
teers.—Defenceless State of the Country.— Loyalty
of the Volunteers. — Their Uniforms. — Volunteers
Protestant at first. — Catholics desirous to join.—
Volunteers get the Militia Anns.— Their Aims. —
Military System. — Numbers in 1780.

The earlier years of Lord Buckingham’s
viceroyalty were not marked by any very
striking event much different from the
routine of parliamentary business during
the preceding administrations. When
this nobleman assumed the reins of
government the country was still suffering
the most poignant distress ; Avhile the
national debt and all public charges were
accumulating. Petitions now poured into
both Houses, representing the sad facts
with regard to declining trade. As these
petitions certainly stated the truth, they
are really valuable historical documents,
illustrative of the period.

Thus, a petition was presented to the
House of Commons from the merchants
and traders of Cork, setting forth that
about the month of November, 1770, an
embargo was laid on all ships laden with
provisions, and bound from Ireland to
foreign countries, which was still con-
tinued by Government, and had been
very strictly enforced: that in conse-
quence of that long embargo, an extensive

118

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

beneficial trade, carried on for several
years by that kingdom to France, Spain,
Portugal, and Holland, for the supply of
provisions, had been not only interrupted,
but was in danger of being entirely lost ;
the petitioners being informed that the
merchants of these countries were respec-
tively stocked and provided from Russia,
Sweden, Denmark, and Hamburg, whereby
the usual returns to that kingdom were
discontinued, new enemies to our com-
merce were raised, and our commodities
rendered useless and unprofitable. That
great quantities of salt beef, not fit for
the use of Government or the sugar
colonies, being made up in that city, and
also great quantities of beef and butter
being annually brought to that market,
these commodities of a perishable nature
were there decaying for want of a free
export, to the great injury of the proprie-
tors in particular, and of the kingdom in
general. That in support of these asser-
tions, there then remained on hand, since
the preceding }'ear, a very considerable
quantity of provisions, the property of
several merchants in that city, not wanted
by Government, and therefore without
opportunity of sale ; and although a con-
siderable part of the season in which
those articles were made up and exported
had already elapsed, no demand whatso-
ever then existed for them, except for
sjch quantities as were required by
Government alone. That his majesty’s
revenue, which before had received large
and constant supplies from the customs
of the city of Cork, had decreased in
proportion to the decay of their trade.
That the embargo, therefore, at that time
not being warranted by any great sub-
stantial necessity, but, on the contrary,
restraining and preventing the diffusion
of trade, was pregnant with the most
ruinous consequences, not only to the
commercial, but also to the landed inter-
ests of the nation ; and therefore the
petitioners prayed redress.

The Dublin manufacturers, in their
petition, had a still sadder narrative to
give. For example, they declared that
there were at that moment no fewer
than twenty thousand persons in that
one city, artisans, out of work, to-
gether with their families, whom they,
the petitioners, were supporting for
charity by means of a relief association
established among themselves ; nor was
Government able to make grants, either
to promote industry or to relieve the
national calamities. Every branch of the
revenue failed, and such was the poverty
of the nation, that the militia law could
not be carried into effect. Ireland could

not pay her forces abroad, and was obliged
to borrow money from England to pay
those at home. The Parliament Avas
necessitated to raise money at an exorbi-
tant interest ; the expenses in 1777 having
amounted to above i.’80,000 more than the
revenue : £166.000 Avere therefore bor-
roAA-ed, and attempted to be raised in the
old manner upon debentures at £1 per
cent.

So truly desperate Avas the financial
state of Ireland, that, like desponding
bankrupts, the Commons undertook to
grant Avhat they knew they had not the
means of paying. Even the ministerial
party could not be blind to their situation.
They Avould not, hoAvever, permit any
question to be brought forward on the
state of the country in the Commons, lest
too strong resolutions upon it should be
carried, or their opposition to them should
appear even too rank for their OAvn sys-
tem. They accordingly had again recourse
to the half-measure of couA'eying their
imperfect sense of the distressful state of
the country through their Speaker, avIio,
in presenting the first four money bills
passed in that session, addressed himself
to the lord-lieutenant in A'ery general
terms, expressing the unbounded confi-
dence of the House in his majesty’s AA is-
dom, justice, and paternal care, and relying
on the viceroy’s “ candour and humanity
to make a faithful representation to his
majesty of their unshaken loyalty, duty,
and affection.”

Thus the pitiful and hopeless contest
Avent on upon these questions of the
money bills, the pension list, and general
extravagance of Government. The Pat-
riots saAV Avell that they could not noAv
hope to carry any really important
measure, resolution, or address, that
should be distasteful to the Castle. Yet
they resoh’ed to put on record, at least
once in each session, their OAvn theory of
the eAuls of the country. Therefore, after
the speech of the lord-lieutenant, a motion
Avas made for a humble address to his
majesty, setting forth that the civil list
had doubled in tAventy years; that one
great cause Avas the rapid and astonish-
ing groAvth of the pension list that
ministers had repeatedly promised re-
trenchment, but had, on the contrary,
continually increased their demands, and
other the like topics. This address Avas
negatiA'ed by a majority of 77 — so Avell
drilled Avere the ministerial members.

The alarming neAvs of the French
alliance with the Americans AA-as com-
municated to Parliament by the lord-
lieutenant, in a special message ; and this
' Avas instantly followed by a demand of a

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

iia

new loan of £30,000 at six per cent. A
few clays after, came a new message, to
apprise them that the loan (which they
had at once voted to raise) could not be
affected at six per cent., and to demand
further action upon their part. Thus, as
the American war Avas draAving to a close,
Ireland had neither money nor credit —
•was absolutely ruled by placeholders and
pensioners, and Aras made to contribute
her last shilling and contract further
debt, to defeat and ruin a cause Avhich
nine-tenths of her people felt to be Ire-
land's OAvn cause as Avell as America’s.

Lord North, Avho Avas not Avanting in
sagacity, understood the state of Irish
affairs A'ery Avell : he suav the rising im-
patience of the Patriot party in the colony,
and kncAv that the contagion of American
ideas AA-as fast groAAnng and sj)reading.
It Avas at this time, therefore, that the
British Ministry resoh^ed to take a more
important step towards conciliation of the
Catholics than had yet been A-entured
upon. Avith the hope of actually making
the ^'’atholic people a kind of English in-
terest, against the Protestant Patriots.
It was not, indeed, contemplated to repeal
the A-.diole Penal Code — very far from this
— but to admit certain slight relaxations
only in certain parts of that elaborate
system. In the English Parliament, first,
Avitli the full consent of the minister, a
motion Avas made for leaA'e to bring in a
Bill for repeal of certain of the penalties
and disabilities provided in an Act of
■William the Third,” etc. On this
English debate, it seemed that the Parlia-
ment Avas tolerable unanimous in ap-
px’obation of a very modest and limited
measure in this direction ; but it must be
remembered that the Catholics in England
were but one in ten of the population ;
and there could not be the slightest
danger, either to the settlement of pro-
perty or to Avhat Englishmen call the
freedom of the country, in relicA'ing them
from at least a feAv of the most dreadful
penalties to Avhich they Avere every day
exposed. Indeed in England there had
been long a practical toleration- of Cath-
olic Avorship ; yet, as Lord Ashburton ob-
served, on seconding the motion of Sir
George Savile, the mildness of GoA'ern-
ment had hitherto softened the rigour of
the law in the practice, but it Avas to be
considered that the Eoman Catholic
priests Avere still left at the mercy of the
loAvest and basest of mankind ; for on the
complaint of any informing constable, the
magisterial and judicial poAvers A\-ere
bound to enforce all the shameful
penalties of the act.” In fact, some time
before this period the penal laAvs had been

enforced against two priests, a Mr. Malony
and Mr. Talbot, the l>rother of the Earl of
Shrewsbury. These proceedings had been
resorted to by a solitary indiAudual, one
Pain, a carpenter, who having tAvo daugh-
ters, little business, much bigotry, and
more covetousness, had formed a singular
speculation of acquiring £20,000 apiece
for his daughters’ fortunes by informa-
tions under the penal statutes against the
Catholics.

The English bill passed Avithout opposi-
tion ;* but Avhen the neAv policy of minis-
ters came to be applied to Ireland, it Avas a
different matter. In this island the pro-
prietors of confiscated estates did not yet
feel quite secure. They had ahvays been
accustomed to believe that the “Protes-
tant Interest ” — that is, their OAvn exclu-
sive possession of all the lands and of all
the profitable professions and trades —
depended upon keeping the Catholics
completely under foot. There Avas uoav,
indeed, no apprehension of “ bringing in
the Pretender ; ” for the Pretender Avas
dead, and had left no heir of the Stuarts:
but the settlement of property, the ex-
clusive access to the professions — these
Avere the truly momentous and sacred
interests of Protestantism. In Ireland,
therefore, though the measure came
recommended by the example of England,
and the express wishes of the administra-
tion, it Avas Avarmly contested at every
point. On the 11th day after the unh^ersal
assent to Sir George Savile’s motion in
favour of the Roman Catholics of Eng-
land, j\Ir. Gardiner, on the 2.')th of INlay,
1778, made a motion in tiie Irish House
of Commons, that leave be giA-en to bring
in heads of a bill for the relief of his
majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects of
Ireland, and that ]Mr. Gardiner, the lion.
Barry Barry, and Mr. Yelverton, do pre-
pare and bring in the same ; and it AA^as
carried in the atfirmatiA'e. At the same
time the Presbyterians of Ireland, bearing
in mind that the sacramental test had
been imposed upon their ancestors by
their lying by, Avhen nexv severities Avere
imposed upon their Roman Catholic breth-
ren, came fonA*ard on this occasion to
a\'ail themseh'es of the first symptoms of
tolerance in an Irish Parliament. Sir
EdAvard NeAvnham on the same day moved
that leave might be given to bring in
heads of a bill for the relief of his majes-
ty’s subjects the Protestant Dissenters of
that kingdom : aiivd Sir Edward NeAA-nham
and Sir Boyle Roche Avere ordered to

* A circumstance Avhich excited the enlightened
Protestants of London to make their famous No
Popery Plot, break jails and burn houses, under the
saintly Lord George Gordon.

120

HISTORY OR IRELAND.

prepare and bring in the same. But
'whether from a conviction that the relief
to the Dissenters 'was not of equal urgency
'with that proposed to be granted to the
Koman Catholics, or that the British
cabinet had hitherto expressed no opinion
or inclination in their favour, the measure
■was remitted to another session.

The Catholic Bill did not propose to let
the Catholics have arms, horses, educa-
tion, a seat in Parliament, a vote at
elections, a right to sit upon juries, or
entrance into municipal corporations ; but,
slender as was the concession, it was
bitterly opposed, and that even by “Patri-
ots,” Avho had no wider idea of Patriotism
than the measure of the Protestant in-
terest. On tiie 5th June, 1778, five divi-
sions Avere had upon the bill in the Irish
House: each Avas carried in the affirma-
tiA'e. by a small majority ; and on the 15th
of the same month there Avere three
dmsions. The Protestants throughout
the kingdom Avere taking the alarm, and
petitions Avere pouring in from the
corporations. On this 15th of June, for
example, a petition from the mayor,
sheriffs, common council, freemen, free-
holders, and other Protestant inhabitants
of the city of Cork, Avas presented against
the bill.

On the 16th, on motion to resol A^e into
committee of the AA hole to take the heads
of the bill into further consideration, the
House divided, and the motion Avas
defeated. On the 18th, the House sat in
committee over these heads of a bill till
three o’clock in the morning, and on the
19th till four o’clock. At last, on the
20th, Mr. Gardiner Avas ordered to attend
his excellency the lord-lieutenant Avith
the said heads of a bill, and desire the
same might be transmitted into Great
Britain in due form. Thus, after the
severest contest, A\'ith the full and un-
equHocal approbation of the GoA’ernment,
the general s;i})port of the Patriots, and
the unanimous accord of the British
legislature in a similar indulgence to the
Koman Catholics of England, Avere these
heads of a bill carried through the Irish
House of Commons by the small majority
of nine. Upon the third reading of this
bill in the House of Lords, the contents
Avith their proxies Avere 36, and the not
contents AA'ere 12. On the 14th of August
the lord-lieutenant put an end to the
session.

The British ministry soon saAV cause
to extend their policy of conciliation, and
to assent to some very trifling relaxations
of the restrictions upon Irish trade and
commerce. ISome intelligent and patriotic
Englishmen, Lord IseA\'haven and the

Marquis of Rockingham amongst the
number, pressed on the Parliament of
England the propriety of granting to the
Irish nation the liberty of exporting their
produce, Avith the extraordinary exception
of their Avoollens, Avhich formed a prin-
cipal ingredient. Lord Weymouth, hoAv-
eA'er, resisted so dangerous a concession
to the claims of Ireland ; and the only
compromise Avhich Avas effected AA-as an
Export Bill, Avith the special exceptions
of Avoollens and cottons. The Bristol
merchants, aaUo appear through the
Avhole history of English aA'arice and
tyranny to have been influenced by a
policy pre-eminently mean, selfish, and
grasping — the genuine spirit of paltry
trade — Avent so far as to heap insults on
their representative, Edmund Burke, for
supporting the measure.

In the meantime the Irish Parliament,
in its session of 1788, had passed a “militia
bill,” to authorize the formation of A^olun-
teer forces for defence of the country
Erench and American privateers Avere
SAveeping the seas and the British chan-
nel ; the Avide extent of the Irish coast
Avas left exposed AAuthout defence, and
there began to be very general alarm in
the seaport toAvns. Mr. Flood had for-
merly proposed a national militia, but the
idea Avas not then favoured by the Govern-
ment, and it failed. The militia bill of
this year Avas not opposed by the admini-
stration ; probably they little thought to
Avhat proportions the militia Avould develo]>
itself, and hoAV far it Avould extend its
aims ; but it immediately occurred to the
Patriots, that Avhile the English Parlia-
ment Avas peddling and higgling over the
miserable and grudging relaxations of
Ireland’s commercial restraints, here Avas
a gracious opportunity presenting itself
for e.xercising such a resistless pressure
upon England, in her hour of difficulty
and danger (England’s difficulty being
then, as ahvays, Ireland’s opportunity),
as Avould compel her to yield, not only a
free-trade, but a free Parliament : and
the former, they kneAv, Avould neA^er be
fully assured AA'ithout the latter. It Avas
noAV that public spirit in Ireland,
instead of colonial, began to be truly
national, and this chiefly by the strong
impulse and insjAiration of Henry Grat-
tan, Avho saAv, in the extension of the
A'olunteering spirit, a means of combining
the tAvo discordant elements of the Irish
people into one nation, and elevating the
Catholics to the rank of citizens, not by
the insidious “ boons ” of the English,
but through the cordial combination and
amalgamation of the Irish for their
common defence. It AA'as for some months

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

121

anxiously considered and debated at the
Castle whether the forces which were to
be raised, under the new law, were to be a
true militia, and therefore subject to
martial law, or to be composed of inde-
pendent volunteer companies, choosing
their own officers. But this question Avas
soon settled by the people themselves,
Avho were rapidly forming themselves into
the latter kind of organization, and who
evidently felt that they tvere arming, not
so much against the foreign enemy as
against the British Government.

The volunteering began at Belfast. In
August, 1778, the people of that tOAvn
were alarmed by stories of privateers
hovering near : they remembered their
imminent peril at the time of Thurot’s
expedition, and at once began to organize
and arm volunteer companies, as they had
done before on that memorable occasion.
At the same time the “ sovereign ” of the
town, INIr. Stewart Burke, wrote to the
Irish Secretary, urging that some troops
should be sent down, lie received this
answer —

“Dublix Castle, August 14, 1778.

“ Sin, — My Lord-Lieutenant liaAung
received information that there is reason
to apprehend that three or four privateers
in company may in a few days make
attempts on the northern coasts of this
kingdom ; by his excellency’s command,
I give you the earliest account thereof,
in order that there may be a careful
Avatch, and immediate intelligence given
to the inhabitants of Belfast, in case any
Iiarty from such ships should attempt to
land.

“ The greatest part of the troops being
encamped near Clonmel and Kinsale, his
excellency can at present send no further
military aid to Belfast than a troop or two
o f horse, or part of a comi>any of invalids ;
and his excellency desires you Avill
acquaint me by express Avhether a troop or
tAvo of horse can be properly accommo-
dated in Belfast, so long as it may be
proper to continue them in that tOAvn, in
addition to the two troops noAV there. I
have, etc.,

“ Eiciiard Heron.”

This is but one of many communications
AAdiich passed at the time betAveen the
Government and the authorities of Bel-
fast. In most of them, the former express
their satisfaction at the spirit of the
volunteer companies then formed or about
to be formed ; Avith no sincerity, as Ave
shall see iiresently.

It was evident, then, that the Govern-
ment was in no condition to defend
Ireland, if Ireland had really been me-

I naced with invasion ; and therefore quite
j as little in a condition to resist a great
national military organization, no matter
Avhat form that might assume. In fact,
after the example of Belfast, the whole
country now rushed to arms. It Avas a
scene of wild and noble excitement.
CroAvds thronged the public places of
resort, anxious and resolved : in every
assembly of the people the topic Avas
“ defence of the country ; ” and if there
were many Avho from the first felt that
the country had but one enemy in the
world from AAdiom it needed defence (that
is, England), the reflection only heigh-
tened their zeal in promoting the national
armament. On the 1st December, 1778,
the people of Armagh entered into volun-
tary armed associations, and offered the
command to Lord Charlemont. He at
first refused ; because, as lord-lieutenant
of the county, he might at any time lie
called on to command the militia : but
his lordship soon saAv that A'olunteer-
ing Avas the irresistible order of the day ;
and that not to be a Volunteer Avould
soon amount to being nobody at all in
Ireland. Probably, also, he Avas influ-
enced by the more powerful Avill and
deeper sagacity of his friend Grattan ;
and in January, 1779. he assumed com-
mand of the Armagh Volunteers.*

The Government of the day soon saAv
itself poAverless to resist this potent
movement. It, hoAvever, concealed its
apprehensions for the present, under
the mask of gratitude for the loyal
zeal of the people. Loyal as undoubt-
edly the institution was — loyal even
to the prejudices Avhich Government
must haA^e Avished to foster, for one
of their earliest celebrations Avas the
Battle of the Boynet — the English inter-
est trembled, at Avdiat their appalled ima-
gination seemed to be the infancy of
revolution. Thus, Avhilst the Avretched
Government, unable to discharge its func-
tions, and resigning the defence of the
country to the virtue and A^alour of her
children, looked on in angry amazement
at the daily increasing numbers of the
V olunteers, their training into discipline,
their martial array and military celebra-
tions, the great officers of the executive
Avere planning hoAv best they might settle

* Stuart’s History of Armagh. MacNevln’s Vo-
lunteers. Plowden. Hardy’s Cliarlemont. Sir Jonah
Harrington, Rise and Fall, etc. The autliorities
for the history of the Volunteers are innumerable,
and will only be cited for some special fact.

t July 1, i77!). — “ Our three volunteer companies
paraded in their uniform with orange cockades, and
tired three volleys with their usual steadiness and
regularity, in commemoration of the Battle of the
Boyne.” — Hist. Collections relative to the Toavu of
Belfast.

122

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

in its birth the warlike spirit of the
people.

In May, 1779, we find, a letter of Lord
Buckinghamshire to Lord Weymouth,
which clearly proves the fears and hypo-
crisy of Government, and the alarming
progress of the armament.

•• Ui^on receiving official intimation that
tlie enemy meditated an attack upon the
northern parts of Ireland, the inhabitants
of Belfast and Carrickfergus, as Govern-
ment could not immediately afford a greater
force for their protection than about sixty
troopers, armed themselves, and by degrees
formed themselves into two or three com-
panies ; the spirit diffused itself into
different parts of the kingdom, and the
numbers became considerable, but in no
degree to the amount represented. Dis-
couragement has, however, been given on my
part, as far as might be ivithout offence at a
crisis when the arm and good-will of every
individual miglit have been wanting for
the defence of the state.”

Lord Buckinghamshire, in another part
of the same letter, attributes the rapid in-
crease in tlie ranks of the Volunteers to
an idea tliat was entertained amongst the
people that their numbers would conduce
to the attainment of i)olitical advantages
for their countr}'.

All motives conduced to the same end,
and that end — the armed organization of
Ireland — was rapidly approaching. The
fire of the people, and their anxiety to
enter the ranks of the national army, may
be judged from the fact, that in Septem-
ber, 1779, the return of |the Volunteers in
the counties of Antrim and Down, and
in and near Coleraine, amounted to :

Total in the county of Down 2241

Total in the county of Antrim 1474

In and near Colei’aiue 210

3925

Of these, the great majority were fully
equipped and armed — and glittered in the
gay uniform of the Volunteers. Some few
companies were, however, unarmed, even
up to a later period, until the pressure on
Government compelled them to distribute
the arms intended for the militia to
worthier hands.

The uniforms of the Volunteers were
very various, and of all the colours of the
rainbow. The uniform of the Lawyer’s
corps was scarlet and blue, their motto,
*•' Pro aris et fucis;” the Attorney’s regi-
ment of Volunteers was scarlet and
Pomona green ; a corps called the Irish
Brigade, and composed principally of
Catholics, (after the increasing liberality
of the day had permitted them to become

Volunteers), wore scarlet and white ; other
regiments of Irish Brigades wore scarlet
faced with green, and their motto was Vox
populi suprema lexest; the Goldsmith’s corps,
commanded by the Duke of Leinster,
wore blue, faced with scarlet and a pro-
fessional profusion of gold lace.

The “ Irish Volunteers” were at first a
Protestant organization exclusively. It
was only by degrees and with extreme
jealousy that its ranks were afterwards
opened to those of the proscribed race
It might seem, indeed, that the Catholics
would have been justified in taking no
interest in the movement, and that they
had little to hope from any change. They
were not yet citizens, and if permitted to
breathe in Ireland, it was by connivance,
and against the law. Even the most
zealous of the new V olunteers, who were now
springing to arms for defence of Ireland,
were, witii some illustrious exceptions,
their most determined and resolute
foes. But, plunged in poverty and
ignorance as they were, despoiled of
rank, and arms, and votes, they yet seem
j to have felt instinctively that a move-
ment for Irish independence, if successful,
must end in their emancipation. They
had grown numerous, and many of them
rich, in the midst of persecution ;
and, notwithstanding the penal laws
against education, many of the Catholics
were in truth the best educated and
accomifiished persons in the island. These
instructed and thoughtful Catholics could
see very well — what Grattan also saAv,
Imt what most Cromwellian squires and
Williamite peers could not see— that if
Ireland should still pretend “ to stand
upon her smaller end,” she would not
long stand against England. Tlien they
were naturally a warlike race ; and, it
must be added to their credit, that the
late small and peddling relaxations in
the Penal Code, urged on by the British
minister in order to conciliate them
to the English interest, had signally
failed. The English interest, as they felt,
was the great and necessary enemy of all
Ireland, and of every one of its inhabi-
tants, and so it was very soon apparent
that the armed Protestant Volunteers
would have at their back the two millions
of Catholic Irish.

Tliere is in the dark records of the
depravity of the Government of that day
a singular document, which, while it
attests the patriotism and zeal of the
Catholics, illustrates the base and vile
spirit which repelled their loyalty and
refused their aid. The Earl of Tyrone
wrote to one of the Beresfords, a member
of that grasping patrician fmnily, which

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

123

liad long ruled the country,* that the
Catholics in their zeal were forming
themselves into independent companies,
and had actually begun their organiza-
tion ; but that, seeing the variety of con-
sequences which would attend such an
event, he had found it his duty to stop
their movement ! Miserable Government
— unable to discharge its first duty of
defence, and trembling to depute them to
the noble and forgiving spirit of a gallant
people ! The Catholics of Limerick,
forbidden the use of arms, subscribed and
made, a present of £800 to the treasury of
the Volunteers.

During all this time “ the Castle” looked
on in silent alarm. Even so late as May,
1779, when the Volunteer companies num-
bered probably twenty thousand men, the
lord-lieutenant gravely considered whether
it were still possible to disperse and disarm
them by force. In one of his letters to
Lord Weymouthf he says — “ The seizing
of their arms would have been a violent
expedient, and the preventing them from
assembling without a military force im-
practicable ; for Avhen the civil magistrate
Avill rarely attempt to seize an offender
suspected of the most enormous crimes,
and AALen convicted, convey him to the
jAlace of execution Avithout soldiers ; nay,
Avhen in many instances persons cannot
be put into possession of their property,
nor, being possessed, maintain it Avithout
such assistance, there is little presumption
in asserting, that, unless bodies of troops
had been unh^ersally dispersed, nothing
could haA^e been done to effect this. My
accounts state the number of corps as not
exceeding eight thousand men, some
Avithout arms, and in the Avhole, very feAv
who are liable to a suspicion of disaffec-
tion.”

But in the next month, the same vice-
roy communicates to the same minister,
that, by advice of the PriA'y Council of
Ireland, he had supplied the Volunteers
AA'ith part of the arms intended for the
militia. This Avas really giving up the
island into the hands of the Volunteers.
The leaders of that force at once felt that
they might do AAdiat they Avould with Ire-
land— for a time. After the delivery of
the arms, the numbers of Volunteers ra-
pidly and greatly increased. J

But a spirit of great moderation reigned
OA’er the councils of this armed nation.
It was, in the hands of those leaders, any-
thing rather than a republican, or agra-

* May 28, 1779. Grattan's Life: cited by Mac-
Nevin.

t May 24, 1779.

t 16,000 stand of arms were delivered to the
Volunteers at this time.

rian, or revolutionary movement. Thus,
they adopted a system of officering their
army, which gave a pledge that no anar-
chical idea had place in their thoughts.
The soldiers elected their OAvn command-
ers ; and whom, says MacNeAun, Avhom
did they choose ? “ Whom did this demo-

cratic army select to rule their councils
and direct their poAver ? Not the low
ambitious— not the village vulgar braAvler
— but the men Avho, by large possessions,
lofty character, and better still, by virtue
and by genius, had given to their names
a larger patent than nobility. Flood and
Grattan, Charlemont and Leinster — the
chosen men in all the liberal professions
—the orators aaLo led the Patriot party
in the House of Commons— the good, the
high, the noble : these Avere the officers
Avho held iinpurchased honours in the Vo-
lunteers. We may Avell look back, Avith
mournful pride, through the horrid chaos
Avhere rebellion and national ruin rule the
murky night, to this one hour of glory
— of poAver uncorrupted, and oiAportuni-
ties unabused.”

It is difficult to arriA'e at any accurate
statement of the numbers of the Volun-
teers Avithin the first year of their organi-
zation. There have been both exaggera-
tive and depreciatiA'e estimates. We have
seen that the lord-lieutenant, in June,
1779, had supposed their force to be onh’-
8000 ; yet in the very next month had
yielded to them a demand Avhieh it Avould
have been vitally important to the Go-
A’ernment to refuse them. And as Avill be
ahvays the case, Avhere the money of
Government can command the A'enal crew
of Avriters, the most elaborate falsehood
and the most insulting ridicule AA'cre
poured upon the heads of those by Avhose
exertions the national cause Avas so nobly
maintained. In Lloyd’s Evening Post, an
article appeared on the 7th of July, stat-
ing that the numbers of the Volunteers
had been monstrously exaggerated ; that
no call could bring into the field tAventy
thousand men; that persons of all ages
Avere enrolled and put on paper ; that
every gentleman belonged to tAvo, and
most of them to five or six different corps,
and that by this ubiquity and divisibility
of person, the muster-rolls of the com-
panies Avere SAvelled. Doubtlessly there
Avas some exaggeration in the representa-
tion of the numbers occasionally made ;
but a competent authority, commenting
on this article, states, that at this time
there Avere 95,000.

In the ranks of the Volunteers there
Avere, in point of fact, very man}’ Catholics
from a very early period of the movement ;
but they were there by connivance, as

124

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

they Avere eA'erjAA’here else. But in the
next year, after meetings of Volunteers
had passed resolutions in faA'our of Catho-
lic rights, the young men of that religion
began to SAvell the numbers of many
corps. Some corps Avere composed alto-
gether of Catholics : and AA"hen the Dun-
gannon CoiiA’ention came, the Volunteer
army Avas at least 75,000 strong.

During the summer of 1709, an event
occurred, AA^hich immensely stimulated
the A'olunteering spirit the combined
fleets of Prance and Spain entered the
Channel in overAvhelming force, Avhich the
British could not venture to encounter ;
the A'essels passing betAveen England and
Ireland Avere placed under the protection
of coiiA’oys ; Paul Jones, Avith his little
squadron, fought and captured, AAuthin
sight of the English coast, the Serapis,
man-of-Avar, and Scarborough frigate,
AA’ith many vessels under their coiwoy ; in
short, there Avas another alarm of inva-
sion, both in England and in Ireland.
MacNevin, in his History of the Volun-
teers, says Avith a cool naivete, AA'hich is
cliarming, that this Avas fortunate for
the reputation of the Volunteers, for the
purpose of establishing their fidelity to
the orii/imii principle of their body,” Avhich
principle Avas defence of the country
against a foreign enemy. Most of the
Volunteers kneAr Avell that their only
foreign enemy AA*as England, and that
Prance, Spain, and America Avould have
been most happy to deliver them from
that enemy. They kncAv, also, that the
only use of the Volunteer force, in prac-
tice, Avas likely to be the Avrestling of
their national independence from Eng-
land. HoAvever, the neAv alarm aided,
and seemed to justify the volunteering.
Therefore, the delegates of 125 corps of
Volunteers, all of them men of rank and
character, Avaited on the lord-lieutenant
Avith offers of service ‘ in such manner as
shall be thought necessary for the safety
and protection of the kingdom.’ The
offer Avas accej)ted, but A'ery coldly, and
AA'ithout naming “Volunteers.”

CHAPTEK XIX.

1779—1780.

Free Trade and Free Parliament. — Meanin" of
“ Free Trade.” — Non-importation agreements. —
Rage of the English. — Grattan's motion for free
trade. — Hussey Burgh. — Thanks to the Volun-
teers.— Parade in Dublin. — Lord North yields.
— Free Trade Act. — Next step. — IMutiny Bill. —
The 19th of April. — Declaration of Right. — De-
feated in Parliament, but successful in the
countrj-. — General determination.— Organizing. —
Arming. — Reviews. — Charlemont. — Briberies of
Buckingham. — Carlisle. — Viceroy.

To force from reluctant England a Pree
Trade, and the repeal, or rather declara-

tory nullification of Poyning’s LaAv, Avhich
required the Irish Parliament to submit
the heads of their bills to the English
PriA'y Council before they could presume
to pass them — these Avere, in feAv Avords,
the tAvo great objects Avhich the leaders of
the Volunteers kept noAv steadily before
them. It must be here observed, that the
idea and the term “ free trade,” as then
understood in Ireland, did not represent
Avhat the political economists now call
free trade. What Avas sought, Avas a re-
lease from those restrictions on Irish
trade imposed by an English Parliament,
and for the profit of the English people
This did not mean that imports and ex
ports should be free of all duty to the
state, but only that the fact of import or
export itself should not be restrained by
foreign laAvs, and that the duties to be de-
rived from it should be imposed by Ire-
land’s own Parliament, and in the sole
interest of Ireland herself. This distinc-
tion is the more important to be observed,
because modern “ free traders ” in Ireland
and in England have sometimes appealed
to the authority of the enlightened men
Avho then governed the Volunteer moA'e-
ment as an authority in favour of abolish-
ing import and export duties. The cita-
tion is by no means applicable.

The first measure to convince England
that Ireland Avas entitled to an unrestricted
trade, Avas the “non-importation agree-
ment,” Avhich many of the Volunteer
corps, as Avell as tOAvn corporations,
solemnly adopted by resolutions, during
the year 1779. Although there AA'ere
frequent debates in the British Parlia-
ment this year on the subject of modify-
ing the laAvs prohibiting the export of cot-
tons, Avoollens, and provisions, from Ire-
land, yet it Avas but too plain that the
rapacious spirit of British commerce, and
the menacing, almost frantic, opposition
given to all consideration of such measure,
by petitions, Avhich sounded more like
threats, coming from the great centres of
trade in England, Manchester, GlasgoAA',
LAerpool, and Bristol, Avould render all
redress hopeless from that quarter. The
non-importation agreements became po-
pular, and the people of many tOAvns and
counties Avere steadily refusing to Avear or
use in their houses any kind of wares
coming from England. The toAvn of
Gahvay had the honour of leading the Avay
in this movement : the example Avas im-
mediately folloAved by corps of Volun-
teers in many counties ; and as the Volun-
teers Avere already the fashion, Avomen
sustained their patriotic resolution, and
ladies of Avealth began to clothe them-
selves exclusively in Irish fabrics. The

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

125

resolutions are not uniform in their tenor.
At a general meeting of the Freemen and
Freeholders of the city of Dublin, con-
vened by public notice, these resolutions
were passed :

“ Resolved, That the unjust, illiberal, and
impolitic opposition given hy many self-
interested people of Great Britain to
the proposed encouragement of the trade
and commerce of this kingdom, originated
in avarice and ingratitude.

“ Resolved, That Ave will not, directly or
indirectly, import or use any goods or
wares, the produce or manuiactures of
Great Britain, which can be produced or
manufactured in this kingdom, till an
enlightened policy, founded on principles
of justice, shall appear to actuate the
inhabitants of certain manufacturing
towns of Great Britain, who have taken
so active a part in opposing the regula-
tions proposed in favour of the trade of
Ireland ; and till they appear to entertain
sentiments of respect and affection for
their felloAV-subjects of this kingdom.”

Shortly after the assizes at Waterford,
the high sheriff, grand jury, and a number
■of the most respectable inhabitants, as-
sembled for the purpose of taking into
consideration the ruinous state of the
trade and manufactures, and the alarming
decline in the value of the staple com-
modities of the kingdom ; and look-
ing upon it as an indispensable duty
that they owed their country and them-
selves, to restrain, by every means in their
power, these growing evils, they passed
and signed the following resolutions :

“ Resolved, That we, our families, and
all whom we can influence, shall from
this day wear and make use of the manu-
factures of this country, and this country
only, until such time as all partial restric-
tions on our trade, imposed by the
illiberal and contracted policy of our
sister kingdom, be removed ; but if, in
consequence of this our resolution, the
manufacturers (whose interest we have
more immediately under consideration)
should act fraudulently, or combine to
impose upon the public, we shall hold
ourselves no longer bound to countenance
and support them.

“ Resolved, That Ave Avill not deal Avith
any merchant or shopkeeper a\ ho shall, at
any time hereafter, be detected in im-
posing any foreign manufacture as the
manufacture of this country.”

Ilesolutions of this kind became gen-
eral ; in consequence of Avhich efforts the
manufactures of Ireland began to revive,
and the demand for British goods in a
great measure decreased, a ciecumstance
Avhich tended to produce a disposition

in Great Britain to attend to the com-
plaints of tliat country, different indeed
from that which Ireland had hitherto
experienced.

The feeling of Government on the
subject of non-importation was one of
great irritation, and their partisans in
Parliament did not hesitate to give bitter
utterance to their hatred of the Volunteers
and of the commercial movement. Lord
Shelburne, in May, 1779, called the Irish
army an “ enraged mob; ” but the phrase
Avas infelicitous, and told only half
the truth. They Avere enraged, but they
Avere not a mob. They had no one quality
of a mob. They had discipline, arms, and a
military system. Their ranks Avere tilled
Avith gentlemen, and officered by nobles.
But such expressions as Lord Shelburne’s
were of great advantage. They kept
clearly, in bold relief, the ancient and
irremovable feeling of Englishmen, and
the contemptous falsehood of their esti-
mate of the Irish people. In the same
spirit, the organ of Government Avrote to
the central authority in England on the
subject of the non-importation agree-
ment : — “ For some days past, the names
of the traders Avho appear by the printed
returns of the custom-house to have im-
ported any English goods, have been
printed in the Dublin newspaper. This
is probably calculated for the abominable
purpose of drawing the indignation of the
mob upon individuals, and is supposed to
be the act of the meanest of the faction.”*
When the lord-lieutenant penned this pa-
ragraph, he did not, assuredly, remember
the meanness of the manufacturers and
traders of his OAvn country, or the
measures adopted by the English Parlia-
ment, at their dictation, to crush the
trade and paralyze the industry of this
country. The retaliation Avas just, and
no means that could hav^e been adopted
could equal the atrocity of the conduct of
the English toAvns to the productive in-
dustry of Ireland. Englishmen had a
Parliament obedient to the dictates of the
encroaching spirit of English trade— the
Irish people had not as yet established
their freedom nor armed themselves Avith
the resistless Aveapon of free institutions.
They Avere obliged to legislate for them-
selves, and Avere justified by the exigency
in adopting any means to enforce the
national AvilJ. It seems strange that it
should be necessary to defend the measure
of holding up to scorn the traitors Avho
could expose in their shops articles of
foreign consumption, every article of
which Avas a representative of their

* Letter of the lorcl-lieutcnant to Lord Weymouth,
May, 177y.

126

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

country’s impoverishment and decay. But
the English press denounced it as the
policy of savages, and pointed out the
Irish people to the contumely of Europe.
At the same time, the English manufac-
turers, ever careless of present sacrifices
to secure permanent advantages, flooded
the country towns with the accumulated
products of the woollen manufacture,
which, owing to the war and other causes,
had remained on their hands. They
offered these goods to the small shop-
keepers at the lowest possible prices, and
desired them to name their own time for
payment ; and they partially succeeded in
inducing many of the loAvand embarrassed
servitors of trade, through their neces-
sities, and by the seductive promise of
long credit, to become traitors to the
cause of Irish industry. The Volunteers
and the leaders of the movement Avere
equally active on their side. The press,
the pulpit, and the ball-room, Avere en-
listed in the cause of native industry.
The scientific institutions circulated gra-
tuitously tracts on the improvement of
manufacture — on the modes adopted in
the continental manufacturing districts,
and on the economy of production. Trade
reA'iA'ed ; the manufacturers Avho had
thronged the city of Dublin, the ghastly
apparitions of decayed industry, found
employment provided for them by the pa-
triotism and spirit of the country ; the
proscribed goods of England remained
unsold, or only sold under false colours
by knaA’ish and profligate retailers ; the
country enjoyed some of the fruits of free-
dom before she obtained freedom herself.

The session of the Irish Parliament of
1779-80 had been looked forAA'ard to AA'ith
profound interest ; and it opened Avith
stoiiny omens. The speech from the lord-
lieutenant contained more than the usual
quantity of inexplicit falsehood and
diplomatic subterfuge. The address in
reply Avas its echo, or Avould have been,
but that Henry Grattan, he Avho Avas
above all others, the man of his day,
moved his celebrated amendment. The
speech of the Auceroy had alluded Avith
skilful obscurity to certain liberal inten-
tions of the king on the subject of trade :
but there Avas no promise for hope to rest
upon ; it Avas vague and Avithout meaning.
This AA'as not AA'hat the spirit of the hour
or the genius of the men Avould endure.
They felt the time had come to strike
with mortal bloAv the AA’hole system of
English tyranny, and to gi\'e freedom and
security to the trade and industry of
Ireland.

When the speech Avas read in the Com-
mons, the English interest anxiously

scanned the opposition benches. They
saAv that something Avould be done em-
barrassing to their system and to them
but they could not anticipate the bloAv
that Avas ready for their heads, or
that their fiercest foe would be a place-
man in their ranks. An address Avas
proposed by Sir Kobert Deane, a drudge
of GoA-ernment, re-echoing, in servility, the
the vague generalities of the speech. Grat-
tan then rose to propose his amendment : —
“ That AA'e beseech his majesty to belieA’-e
that it is Avith the utmost reluctance Ave
presume to approach his royal person Avith
eA'en the smallest appearance of dis-
satisfaction ; but that the distress of this
kingdom is such as renders it an indis-
pensable duty in us to lay the melancholy
state of it before his majesty, and to point
out Avhat Ave apprehend to be the only
effectual means of relief ; that the con-
stant drain of its cash to supply absentees,
and the fetters on its commerce, liaA^e
alAvays been sufficient to prevent this
country from becoming opulent in its
circumstances, but that those branches of
trade Avhich have hitherto enabled it to
struggle AA’ith the difficulties it labours
under, have noAv almost totally failed ;
that its commercial credit is sunk, all its
resources are decaying rapidly, and num-
bers of its most industrious inhabitants
in danger of perishing for Avant ; that as
long as they Avere able to flatter them-
selves tliat the progress of those evils
might be stopped by their OAvn efforts,
they AA’ere unAvilling to trouble his majesty
upon the subject of their distress ; but,
finding that they increase upon them,
notAvithstanding all their endeavours, they
are at last obliged to liaA’e recourse to his
majesty’s benignity and justice, and most
humbly to acquaint him that, in their
opinion, the only effectual remedy that
can be applied to the sufferings of this
kingdom, that can either iiiA’igorate its
credit or sujAport its people, is to open its
ports for the exportation of all its manufac-
tures ; that it is evident to every unpre-
judiced mind that Great Britain AA'ould
derive as much benefit from this measure
as Ireland itself, but that Ireland cannot
subsist AA’itliout it ; and that it is with the
utmost grief they find themseh’es under
the necessity of again acquainting his
majesty that, unless some happy change
in the state of its affairs takes place
AA'ithout delay, it must ineAutably be
reduced to remain a burden upon England,
instead of increasing its resources, or
affording the assistance Avhich its natural
affection for that country, and the in-
timate connection betAA’een their interests,,
have always inclined it to offer.”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

127

his complaint that the proceeding was
occasioned wholly by the Duke of
Leinster.

The Government, quite alive to the
fact that the present posture of affairs
resulted from the power and determination
of the Volunteers, set on one of its habi-
tual agents to assail them. This was
Scott, the attorney-general, who after-
wards, as Lord Clonmel, was, with a few
monstrous exceptions, the most inhuman
judge that ever presided in the shambles of
Irish justice. He attacked the Volun-
teers with an habitual vulgar fury —
described them by every name which the
quick invention of a ferocious mind could
devise; and he was supported in his
philippic by Sir Henry Cavendish, avIio
reminded the House that the Indepen-
dents of the past century commenced by
seeming moderation, but ended by cutting
off the head of the king : men might creej)
into the Volunteers, who might urge them
to similar dangerous couises. But Grat-
tan repelled the charges against the army
in which he was a distinguished soldier —
and told the legislature that the great
objects which they sought could not be
obtained by the skill, the prudence, or
the dexterity of 300 men, without the
spirit and co-operation of 3,000,000. The
military associations, he said, “ caused a
fortunate change in the sentiments of
this House : they inspired us to ask di-
rectly for the greatest object that ever
was set within the view of Ireland — a
free trade.” The spirit in the country
well replied to the spirit within the walls
of the House. The Volunteers instructed
the representatives to vote the supplies
for no longer than six months. They
now amounted to nearly 50,000 men.
Possessed of every Avonted military attri-
bute, disciplined, and Avell armed, they
had other qualities that are too often

Grattan’s speech in support of the
amendment must have been badly pre-
served, for what remains bears no propor-
tion to the magnitude of the interests, or
the absorbing nature of the subject.

To the rage and dismay of Govern-
ment— passions of which unequivocal
demonstrations were given on the mini-
sterial benches — Hussey Burgh, the prime
sergeant, one of the most eloquent and
fascinating men of the day, an official of
Government, a stanch supporter, one
to whom, from the spirit of his ofiice,
patriotism should have been impossible,
moved that “ Ave beg to represent to his
majesty that it is not by temporary
expedients, but by a free trade alone, that
this nation is noAv to be saved from
impending ruin.” This resolution AA^as
carried unanimously; the supporters of
Government saw that it Avas useless to
oppose the spirit of the House ; the nation
Avas standing petitioner at their bar for
the privileges of nature — production and
consumption ; the Volunteers Avere draAvn
up through the streets of Dublin, Avith an
intelligible alternative hung round the
necks of their cannon, “ Free Trade or

;” and the amendment of Henry

Grattan, Avith the improvements of Burgh,
received on the part of the Patriots an
exulting support, and on the part of the
ministers a fearful and angry assent.
The day after this distinguished success,
the addresses of the Lords and Commons
were brought up to the Castle; the streets,
from the House to the seat of government,
Avere lined Arith the corps of the Dublin
Volunteers, under arms, aaLo paid military
honours to the favourite leaders ; the city
was in a tumult of joy and triumph,
contrasting not unfaAmurably Avith the
gloom and irritation of the Castle. And
that no doubt might be entertained of the
authors of this important movement —
that the merit of success should be laid at I
the right door, thanks to the Volunteers
were moved and carried in the Lords and
Commons. The motion in the House of
Commons v^as made by Mr. Conolly, the
head of the country gentlemen. The
Duke of Leinster carried the motion
through the Lords, Avith only one dissen-
tient voice, Lord-Chancellor Lifford, one
of those English lawyers Avho are sent
over to Ireland, from time to time, to occupy
the highest seats of justice and enjoy the
largest emoluments in the country. The
lord-lieutenant, in Avriting to Lord Wey-
mouth, complains bitterly of these votes ;
unanimous expressions as they Avere of the
feelings of all classes in the state, they
appeared in a most reprehensible light to
the viceroy, Arho petulantly Avrote home

absent in military organization. They
Avere the army of the j)eople ; their com-
mission included only the duties of free-
born men to fight for liberty and to
defend a country. Most of their officers
Avere the highest blood of an ancient and
aristocratic country — men not alone en-
nobled by long descent, but by the high
qualities of genius, AAusdom, and integrity.
The soldiers Avere the yeomen of the land,
having as definite an interest in her
prosperity as the highest peer in the
serAuce. And all Avere bound together by
the deepest attachment to the liberties of
Ireland. They had seen Avhat they AA'ere
able to effect ; and as concession after
concession was AATung from power, the
bold and sagacious of them determined
not to rest from their efforts until a free

128

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

iind reformed Parliament sat within the
walls of the Senate House, the permanent
security and guarantee of freedom.

The question of the supplies came before
the House on the 25th November, 1779.
The Patriots had determined to withhold
the grant, or to limit the duration of the
money bill, until free trade was yielded
by England. But Scott, the attorney-
general, endeavoured to prove that supplies
to pay the interest of the national debt,
the tontine, and the loans, were not
supplies to the crown, but for the dis-
charge of national responsibilities. How
tender,” said Grattan, “ the administration
is regarding the moneyed interests of in-
dividuals ; how little they care to risk the
ruin of the nation ! ” The attorney-general
moved that the supplies should be granted
for two years ; ^Ir. French moved an
amendment that they should be granted
for six months. A brilliant debate was
the consequence ; the war of personality,
which was always carried on with so
much vigour and genius in the House,
never raged with fiercer or more splendid
power — but the great oration of the day
Aras delivered by Hussey Burgh, He
said ;

“ You have but tAvo nights ago declared |
against ncAv taxes by a majority of 123,
and have left the ministers supported
only by 47 votes ; if you noAv go back, and
accede to the proposed grant for tAvo
years, your compliance Avill add insult
to the injuries already done to your ill-
fated country ; you strike a dagger in
your OAAii bosom, and destroy the fair
jirospect of commercial hope, because if
the minister can, in the course of tAA'o
clays, render void the animated spirit and
patriotic stability of this House, and pro-
cure a majority, the British minister Avill
treat our applications for free trade Avith
contempt. When the interests of the
Government and the people are contrary,
they secretly operate against each other —
such a state is but smothered Avar, I
shall be a friend alike to the minister and
the iieople, according as I find their desires
guided bj' justice ; but at such a crisis as
this the people must be kept in good
temper, even to the indulgence of their
caprices.

*• Tlie usurped authority of a foreign
Parliament has kept up the most Avicked
hiAvs that a zealous, monopolizing, un-
grateful spirit could deA'ise, to restrain
tlie bounty of providence and enslave a
nation Avhose inliabitants are recorded to
be a brave, loyal, and generous people ; by
the English code of laAvs, to ansAver the
most sordid vieAvs, they haA'e been treated
Avith a savage cruelty ; the Avords penalty.

punishment, and Ireland, are synonymous,
they are marked in blood on the margin
of their statutes; and, though time may
have softened the calamities of the nation,
the baneful and destructive influences of
those laAvs has borne her doAvn to a state of
Egyptian bondage. The English have
soAved their laAvs like serpent’s teeth, and
they have sprung up in armed men,”*

The amendment Avas carried by 138 to
100 ; the triumph of the principles of free
trade Avas insured ; and the minister
acknoAvledged the necessity of precipi-
tately retracing his steps. Who can
doubt the vast influence the Volunteers
exerted in all these proceedings? On
the preceding 4th of November — the
anniversary of the birth of William the
Tliird — the Volunteers had taken the
opportunity of reading to the minister
and the Parliament a lesson of constitu-
tional doctrine around the statue of him
Avho Avas, they conceived, the founder of
constitutional liberty. They assembled in
College Green— the Dublin Volunteer ar-
tillery, commanded by James Napper
Tandy, Avith labels bearing the inscription,
“ Free Trade or speedy revolution,”
suspended on the necks of their cannon ;
the Volunteers of Dublin and the
vicinity, under the orders of the
Duke of Leinster. The sides of the
pedestal on Avhich stood the statue of the
Deliverer, AA'ere ornamented Avith collec-
tions of most significant political reason-
ing ; and under the angry eyes of the
executiA'e, such teachings as the folloAving
Avere given at once to the governors and the
governed. On one side of the pillar Avas
inscribed, “ Belief to Ireland on another,

A short money bill, a free trade, or

else ; ” on a third, “ The Volunteers,

quinquaginta millia juncti, parati pro patrid
mori;' and in the front of the statue Avere
tAvo cannons bearing an inscription on
each, “Free trade or this,” The people
Avere assembled in thousands around the
Volunteer troops, and their enthusiasm
re-echoed in deafening applause the thun-
der of the artillery. It Avas a scene
productive of commercial and political
freedom : that the latter Avas evanescent
Avas not the fault of the institution or
lack of spirit ; but divisions, and doubts,
and suspicions, Avere introduced amongst
the body by the exertions of England ;

* Hussey Burgh lost his place, but rose in popu-
lar estimation. Meetings were held in different
parts of the country to present him with addresses
of thanks. Tlie freedom of the Corporation of
Carrickfergus, and other corporate towns, was given
to him in gold boxes. The address from the Car-
rickfergus Corporation was presented l(y Barry
Yelverton, Recorder of the town. — See Freeman's
Journal, January 4th, 1760.

mSTORr OF IRELAND.

129

mew ambitions filled the minds of some ;
the force of old ministerial associations
pressed upon others ; the courtly tenden-
cies and the timid alarms of a few of the
leading men led them to sacrifice Avhat
they had gained, rather than to peril
English connection by nobly seeking un-
limited freedom. But at the period of
which we are writing, the Volunteer
system was compact and perfect. The
wants of Ireland were commercial and
political. She had been made a bank-
rupt by monopoly, and a slave by usurpa-
tion. The Volunteers were to give her
X)rosperity and freedom, by unrestricted
trade and legislation. And right well did
they set themselves to the appointed task,
with what success appears from Lord
North’s free trade bill, and Grattan’s
Declaration of Eight.

It was appointed for Lord North to
undo the Avork of William the Third, and
to take the first step towards restoring the
trade to Avhich the Deliverer had given
the finishing blow. Lord North had great
experience in obstinate oppression, and
not less in the recognition of the liberties
he had trampled upon. He had braved
tlie genius of Chatham in the disastrous
campaigns against transatlantic freedom
— the Avorld has read Avith profit the sequel
of his history in that great transaction.
He had opposed every effort to emanci-
])ate the trade of Ireland — it is an agree-
able duty for an Irish Avriter to detail the
concessions Avrung from him by the arms
of the Volunteers, and the eloquence and
genius of those avIio led them to victory.
On the 13th of December, 1779, he intro-
duced into the English legislature three
propositions; to permit, first, the export
jf glass; second, the export of Avoollen
goods ; and third, a free trade Avuth the
English settllements in America, the
West Indies, and Africa.

In connection Avith these propositions,
Poster, the Speaker of the Irish House,
and on that occasion the representative of
GoA^ernment, on the 20th of the same
month, moved tAVO resolutions in the Irish
legislature. 1st, Tliat the exportation of
the manufactures of this country Avould
tend to relieve her distresses. 2nd, That
great commercial benefits Avould flow from
the permission to trade Avith the American,
Indian, and African settlements. Pro-
positions of A^ery manifest truth, but
tardily acknoAvledged by the English and
Irish Governments, Asdiose recognition is
obviously attributable to a style of poli-
tical reasoning Avhich Avill prove anything
that a nation of men requires to demon-
strate. The propositions of Lord North,
and the resolutions of Poster, Avere the

basis of the bill Avhich some months later
gave a free trade to Ireland ; and, for the
first time since William the Third de-
stroyed the Avoollen manufacture, and
his English Parliament laid restrictions
on her productive industry, her people
Avere free to use the resources a liberal
nature offered them, and Avhich a
foreign tyrant sealed from their anxious
hands. The efforts they had made hitherto
to free their trade Avere the efforts of
slaAms — petition and remonstrance ; it Avas
not until they demanded free trade, Avith
the Volunteer alternative, that England
struck.

The Volunteers and the country had
soon a more striking proof of the poAver
Avhich their attitude exerted OA'er the
obstinate maxims of English policy.

Lord North, in Pebruary, 1780, intro-
duced his free trade bill in a speech AA hich
Avas the best refutation of his former
arguments, and the severest condemnation
of his former conduct.

The intelligence of the concessions
made by that bill — liberty to export
Avoollen manufactures, and to trade Avitli
the British colonies— Avas receiAmd Avith
great joy by the people. But their joy
was tempered AAuth a Avise care for the
future, and the greater the conceded
advantages Avere, the more did they feel
themselves pressed by the insecurity of
possession. The Amry' magnitude of the
gift taught them Avith greater force the
true principles of freedom. They reflected
that the right Avhich jealous poAver had
respected in its hour of weakness, it Avould
trample on Avith recovered strength.
Wliat security had they that at some
future period, Avhen they had possibly
established a thriAung trade, and expended
much labour and money in creating a pros-
perous commerce, there might not rise
another William, ready to gratify the
insolent aAmrice of England, by the de-
struction of their trade and manufactures ?
The Avisdom of SAvift, of Lucas, and of
Molyneux, appealed to them in the hour
of recovered trade, and pleaded strongly
for unrecovered liberty. They received
a free trade then, not as a gift from bounty,
but as a surrendered right from weakened
poAver ; and, rejoicing at the extent of the
benefit, they Avere neither fools nor syco-
phants ; nor did they compromise tlieir
duty to their country by a needless excess
of gratitude to her frightened oppressor.
Thus, in the resolutions Avhich record
the people’s joy, we may find the strong-
est expressions of their determination to
effect greater things than the emanci-
pation of their trade. Every county in
Ireland addressed its representatives ;
I

130

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

every corps of Volunteers addressed its
officers ; and the spirit of these effusions
may be judged from one, selected from
amongst many, to which the spirit of the
day gave birth. The gentlemen of the
grand jury and freeholders of the county
of Monaghan, addressing their represen-
tatives, amongst other things, said :

“ While Ave rejoice in common with the
rest of our fellow-subjects at the adA'an-
tages which Ireland has latterly obtained,
and Avhich Ave are fully convinced are at-
tributable to the parental attention of his
majesty, the virtue of our Parliament, and
the spirit of our people ; yet, as these
advantages are confined to commerce, our
satisfaction must be limited, lest our
rights and privileges should seem to be
lost in the joy Avhich attends a partial
restoration of them. We do affirm that
no Parliament had, has, or of right ought
to have, any poAver or authority Avhat-
soeA'er, in this kingdom, except the Par-
liament of Ireland; that no statute has the
force of laAv in this kingdom unless enacted
by the king Avith the consent of the Lords
and Commons of the land ; on this prin-
ciple the connection betAveeen Great Bri-
tain and Ireland is to be founded, and on
this principle Ave trust, not only that it
may be rendered secure and permanent,
but that the tAvo kingdoms may become
strongly united and advantageously cir-
cumstanced, as to be able to oppose Avith
success the common enemies of the British
empire. What you liaA^e done, aa'b look
on as a beginning ; and Ave trust that the
termination of the session Avill be as
beneficial to the constitution as the com-
mencement has been to the commerce of
the country.”

These were the sentiments of manly
but conditional loyalty, of generous love !
of freedom aboA^e even the material bene-
fits of trade, AAdiich led to the Kevolution
of 1782, and Avhose diversion into other
channels after the Volunteers had ceased
to exist as a great national army, drove
so many great and upright men into con-
spiracy and revolt.

The desire of constitutional liberty
haAung once seized upon the people, sev-
eral means of obtaining that object Avere
adopted. In Parliament, a short mutiny
bill became a favourite measure. The evils
of a standing army, the dangers to free-
dom inseperable from the existence Avithin
the realm of a large force of armed men.
haAung from its A^ery organization no
sympathies Avith the people, Avere elo-
quently dwelt upon by the leading Patriots
in the House ; magistrates refused to
billet soldiers under a mutiny act, to
which they objected on tAA'o grounds —

first, that it was an English act of Parlia-
ment ; and secondly, that it was perpetual,
and created an armed irresponsible autho-
rity Avithin the state. The Irish mutiny
act had only extended to six months ; it had
been returned from England Avith a change
rendering it perpetual ; thus the legisla-
tion might well be called English, and the
principle despotic. The act Avas resisted,
and it Avould have remained a dead letter,
but that the ultimate decision of the
matter rested Avith the judges, and it AA’as
not thought advisable to resort to their
tribunals. But the time had arrived
Avhen Henry Grattan commenced, in
grave and noble earnest, the great quarrel
of parliamentary liberty. And never
Avas a man more fitted by nature for a
great Avork than he was. SAvift had
Avritten of Irish politics Avith masterly
poAA^er ; Molyneux, Avith considerable
learning ; and Lucas, with homely Augour
and honest zeal ; but in Henry Grattan
all the qualities of greatness Avere com-
bined. He Avas a man of a pure spirit
and a noble genius. He Avas an accom-
plished scholar, and a poet ; but his
scholarship and his poetry gave Avay to
a grand, peculiar, and electric oratory,
unsurpassed, probably unequalled, by the
greatest speakers of any age or nation.
It Avas argumentative and logical in the
highest degree ; but it was also imagina-
tive and picturesque. Its figures Avere
bold and neAv — its striking peculiarity
consisted in the total absence of the usual
or the vulgar. In its noble flights, in the
utter abandonment of genius, there As-as a
grandeur and elegant proportion, a pro-
found wisdom, and a startling vehemence,
Avhich contributed to giA^e to the orator,
all the weight of inspiration. But Grat-
tan Avas not only a consummate orator, he
Avas a patriot in the largest and broadest
sense, and was the first statesman in Ire-
land Avho both aspired to national inde-
pendence for his country, and perceived
the impossibility of maintaining that inde-
pendence, even if established, Avithout
associating the mass of proscribed Catho-
lics in the national aspirations and na-
tional triumph.

The commercial tyranny of England
being noAv broken doAvn, and the country
obAuously ripe for a further advance,
Grattan fixed the 19th of April, 1780, as
the day on Avdiieh he Avould move his
celebrated Declaration of Eight, Avhich,
if adopted, AA'ould be a distinct ultimatum
to England, and, adopted in the front of
the Volunteer array, Arould be an unmis-
takable challenge and defiance. The
scene presented on that memorable day
by Dublin and the Irish Parliament House

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

131

on College Green is vividly described by
MacNevin:

“ No greater day, none of more glory
ever rose upon this country, than that
which dawned upon the Senate House of
Ireland on the 19th of April, 1780. The
dull chronicles of the time, and the meagre
press which then represented popular
opinion, are filled with details of the cir-
cumstances under which Grattan brought
forward his Declaration of Eight. They
were circumstances certainly unequalled
in our history of military splendour and
moral triumph. The streets around the
Attic temple of legislation were thronged
with the disciplined numbers of the Vo-
lunteers, and the impatient multitude of
the people. The uniforms of the Irish
army, the gaudy orange, the brillant scar-
let, and the chaster and more national
green — turned up with different facings,
according to the tastes of the various corps
—contrasted gayly with the dark back-
ground of the civilian mass that watched
with eager eyes the extraordinary scene.
Over the heads of the crowd floated the
banners of the Volunteers, with the
watchwords of freedom and political re-
generation worked in gold or silver on a
ground of blue, green, or white. And
truly the issue to he tried within the
walls of that magnificent building w'as
one great in its effects, and illustrious
from the character of the contending
parties. It was a trial of right between
two great nations — but more, it was to be
either a precedent of freedom or an argu-
ment of usurpation. Much depended on
the result, not alone as to the present
interests, but as to the future destinies of
the country ; and the great men avIio were
engaged in conducting this controversy
of liberty were fully alive to the dignity
of their parts, and tally competent to
discharge the lofty mission they had
undertaken.

“Within the walls of the House of
Commons, a scene of great interest pre-
sented itself to the eye. The galleries
were thronged with women of tlie first
fashion, beautiful, elegantly dressed, and
filled with animated interest in the an-
ticipated triumph of an eloq\ience to
which the place Avas sacred. Scattered
through the House were severel officers
of the Volunteers, for a considerable
number of the members held commissions
in that great body. But the chief attrac-
tions of the House were those dis-
tinguished men avIio Avere upon that day
to make the noblest chapter in the history
of Ireland — men celebrated beyond those
of almost any age for the possession of
the highest of man’s qualities — eloquence,

wit, statemanship, political wisdom, and
unbounded knowledge. There were to be
seen and heard there that day the grace-
ful and eloquent Burgh ; the intrepid
advocate, the consummate orator, the
immaculate patriot, John Philpot Curran ;
the Avise statesman. Flood ; and the foun-
der of Irish liberty, who watched it in its
cradle, and who followed it to its grave,
Grattan. Amongst the spectators Avere
Lifford, the chancellor, whose voice had
negatived every liberty, and denied every
concession ; Charlemont, the truest of
patriots, but the worst of statesmen ; and
ITederick, the Earl of Bristol and the
Bishop of Derry, whose coronet and mitre
could not keep doAvn the ambition of a
tribune, nor conceal the finest qualities
of a demagogue. All eyes Avere turned
to Grattan.

“ After a speech of consummate poAA^er,
in Avhich he imparted to the doctrines of
freedom a more spiritual cast than they
had yet assumed in Ireland, he moved
his three resolutions. 1st, That his most
excellent majesty, by and Avith the con-
sent of the Lords and Commons of Ireland,
are the only power competent to enact
laAvs to bind Ireland. 2nd, That the
croAvn of Ireland is, and ought to be, in-
separably annexed to the croAvn of Great
Britain. Third, That Great Britain and
Ireland are inseparably united under one
sovereign, by the common and indissoluble
ties of interest, loyalty, and freedom. Ilis
resolutions Avere seconded by Eobert SteAv-
art, the father of the man Avho, of ail
others, Avas most active in destroying the
great fabric of freedom Avhich Henry
Grattan commenced upon that day to
rear. He Avas opposed by Foster and
Fitzgibbon ; and to show how completely
Irish freedom Avas the child of arms, the
latter attacked the Volunteers as a
giddy faction, A\diich dealt in violence
and clamour. He felt that Grattan was
indeed fortified by the resolutions of
the armed citizens, and acordingly was
liberal of invectwe against them. Yet
Fitzgibbon represented himself as an
enemy to the usurpations of England. It
Avas singular that on this occasion Flood
Avas opposed to bringing forAvard the
question of Irish liberty. He thought
that the time of England’s distress Avas
an improper one at which to urge the
rights of Ireland.”

The eloquent Avriter just cited has been
someAvhat carried aAvay by his enthusi-
astic sympathy Avith tlie great effort of
Grattan, and exaggerates its importance.
The debate, it is true, Avas extremely in-
teresting ; and if it led to no immediate
practical result in the House, it kept the

132

HISTOKl UF IRELAND.

subject alive before the nation, and gave
it fresh vitality and power. It seems that
scarcely any member, with perhaps one
or two exceptions, ventured to oppose
directly the principles of the resolutions.
The Castle party, however, defeated them
by a motion, that there being an equiva-
lent resolution already on the journals of
the House (alluding to one in Strafford’s
time, which was not equivalent), it was
useless to pass this. The amendment
was carried, and the Declaration of Right
was not pressed at that time to a division.
Plowden thus sums up the result :

“ After a most interesting debate, that
lasted till six o’clock in the morning, in
which every man but one acknowledged
its truth, either expressly, or by not op-
posing it, Mr Flood, who well knew that
the ministerial members were committed
to negative the motion if it came to a
division, recommended that no question
should be put, and no appearance of the
business entered on the journals, to which
Mr. Grattan consented.”

Substantially, however, the object of
the Declaration was accomplished. If it
did not convince the ministerial members
it convinced the Volunteers, and made
more Volunteers.- It also convinced the
Government of the depth and strength of
the new national spirit in Ireland, as we
learn from a letter of Lord Buckingham-
shire, the day after to Lord Hillsborough.
He says ; “ It is Avith the utmost concern
I must acquaint jmur Lordship that,
although so many gentlemen expressed
their concern that the subject had been
introduced, the sense of the House against
the obligation of any statutes of the Par-
liament of Great Britain, within this
kingdom is represented to me to have
been almost unanimous.”

The people out-of-doors began now to
be greviously discontented with their
Parliament. They Avere becoming more
and more thoroughly indoctrinated Avith
the generous sentiments of Grattan, not
only through his OAvn speeches and essays,
but by means of the brilliant pamphlets
of Mr. Pollok, published under the name
of OAA'en Roe O’Neill, ^vho entered A^ery
fully into the grievances of the country,
and Avent the Avhole length of the claim to
legislative independence. Indeed, it be-
came evident that, Avithout legislatiA-e in-
dependence, no concessions in respect of
freedom of trade or anything else could
be relied upon as either efficient or per-
manent.

After the first burst of triumph over
the commercial reforms of Lord North, it
Avas found, on examination and trial, that
the laAv had been so contrived as to render

the concessions nearly illusory. Espe-
cially in the matter of the trade in re-
fined sugar, it was seen that the neAv laAv,
and a treacherous addition Avhich had
been made to it, after its passage in the
British Parliament, tended to destroy the
sugar refineries of Ireland, then an im-
portant branch of industry ; and a peti-
tion Avas presented by the tOAA-n of NcAvry,
not only exposing this contrivance, but
also adverting earnestly to AA'hat Avas noAv
become the chief parliamentary topic, the
“mutiny bill,” In short, the aroused
spirit of the people demanded that the prin-
ciple of English domination in Ireland
should be assailed at every point ; and in
nothing AA’as that principle so momentous
and so menacing as in the practice of
gOA'erning the standing army of Ireland
(12,000 to 15,000 strong), by a perpetual
mutiny act passed in England. So
charmed, hoAvever, Avas the Parliament
Avith its small and doubtful success in the
matter of free trade, that it not only
liberally granted the supplies for a year
and a half longer, but agreed to the Eng-
lish mutiny bill, Avhich Avas perpetual, by
a majority of 52. In short, it A\-as plain
that this Parliament so extensively cor
rupted, and so Avell disciplined by the
Castle iufiuence (that is, by the corrupt
expenditure of the peoples’ money), could
not be relied upon to realize the lofty
aspiration of the nation. Absolute na-
tional independence AA’as noAv their fixed
purpose.

The year 1780 was one of incessant
organization ; revieAvs took place through-
out all Ireland; and a great provincial
meeting Avas appointed for the NoA-ember
of that year, previous to Avhich in all parts
of the country the Volunteer corps Avere
revieAved by the commanding officers in
each district. The Earl of Belvidere re-
AueAved the troops of Westmeath; the
Limerick and Clare Volunteers AA cre re-
vieAA’ed by Lord Kingsborough ; the Lon-
donderry by Lord Erne; the Volunteers
of tlie South by Lord Shannon ; those of
WickloAv by Lord Kingsborough ; and the
Volunteers of Dublin county and city,
Avho had formed themselves into associated
corps,by Lord Carysfort, Sir Edward NeAA'n-
ham, and other men of rank, patriotism,
and fortune. These revieAvs Avere attended
Avith every circumstance of brilliancy.
There Avas no absence of the pomp of AA ar.
The Volunteers had supplied themseh-es
AA-ith artillery, tents, and all the requsites
of the field. 'Ihey had received many
presents of ordnance ; numerous stands
of colours had been presented to them,
Avith no absence of ceremony and splen-
dour, by Avomen of the highest station

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

1 Of>

loo

and figure in the country, whose pride it
Avas to attend the reviews in their hand-
somest equipages, and clothed in their
gayest attire.

Until the middle of the }'ear 1780, the
Volunteers had acted in independent
troops and companies, only linked to-
gether by their community of feeling and
design ; but it was apparent that for any
general movement, for any grand military
measure (Avhich every day seemed to ren-
der more imminent), they needed a closer
organization and a commander-in-chief.
Their choice fell upon James Caulfield,
Earl of Charlemont, the descendant of one
of the adventurers Avho had come over in
Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and had been re-
warded for his exertions in helping to crush
O’Neil by large grants of confiscated es-
tates. This Earl of Charlemont was a
man of limited capacity, but of much
cultivation. He had travelled much, had
Avritten Italian sonnets, and collected
busts and intaglios. He had been nine
years absent from Ireland, and returned
just as the contest between Primate Stone
and Henry Boyle Avas calming doAvn into
the disgrace of one and the corruption
of the other.

Lord Charlemont’s first Irish serAuces
Avere neither splendid nor honourable. He
Avas chosen as the negotiator betAveen
Boyle and the lord-lieutenant. His duty
Avas to strike a balance between Avhat
the Irish Patriot wanted and the English
official Avould give ; and he Avas eminently
successful in eliciting harmony from the
jarrings of sordid ambition and Castle
economy. But he soon left the Castle
sphere — though Avell fitted by taste and
feeling to be a courtier, it should be Avitli
honour — and that was an impossible fact
in Ireland. It is said by Hardy that
Lord Charlemont was ignorant of the
bargain struck betAveen Boyle and the
lord-lieutenant, by Avhich the former got
a pension ;* but there Avas enough of pro-
fligacy in the concessions made by both
parties, even though money had never
changed hands between them, to take all
glory from the office of negotiator.

As commander-in-chief, hoAvever, of the
Volunteers, he made not only a dignified
and ornamental standard-bearer, but a
A^ery active military organizer. He Avas
great in reviews ; and on the Avhole did
his official duties Avell ; but he never
could expand his mind Avide enough to
grasp the idea of associating in the new
nation the tAvo millions of Catholics.

In replying to the address communica-
ting to him his election as commander-
in-chief, he states Avith so much clearness
* LLfe of Charlemont, vol. i., p. 93.

and perspicuity the position occupied by
the Volunteers, the services they had
rendered, and the spirit Avhich animated
them, that the reply is here presented in
full as a perfect vindication of “ that
illustrious, adored, and abused body
of men.”

Gentlemen, — You have conferred on me an
honour of a very new and distinguished nature, —
to be appointed, without any solicitation on my part,
the revieAving-general of an independent army,
raised by no other call than that of public virtue ; an
army wliich costs nothing to the State, and has pro-
duced everything to the nation, is what no other
country has it in her power to bestow. Honoured
by such a delegation, 1 obeyed it with cheerfulness.
The inducement was irresistible ; I felt it the duty
of every subject to forget impediments whicli would
have stood in the way of a similar attempt in any
other cause.

I see with unspeakable pleasure the progress of
your discipline, and the increase of your associations ;
the indefatigable, steady, and extraordinary exer-
tions, to which I have been a witness, afford a
sufficient proof, that, in the formation of an army,
public spirit, a shame of being outdone, and the
ambition to excel, will supply the place of reward
and punishment — can levy an army, and bring it to
perfection.

The pleasure I feel is increased, when I reflect
that your associations are not the fashion of a daj',
but the settled purpose and durable principle of the
people ; from whence I foresee, that the advan-
tages lately acquired will be ascertained and es-
tablished, and that solid and permanent strength
will be .added to the empire.

I entirely agree in the sentiment you express
with regard to the exclusive authority of the legis-
lature of this kingdom. I agree .also in the expe-
diency of making the assertion ; it is no more than
the law Avill warrant, and the real friends of both
nations subscribe.

I h.ave the honour to be.
Gentlemen,

Your most obliged, Laithful, and
obedient humble servant,

July 15, 1780. Charlemont.

The provincial revieAvs Avhich folloAvetl
the election of Lord Charlemont Avere
intended to convey significantly to the
minister the readiness of an armed nation
to second the propositions of their leaders
in Parliament. Lord Charlemont visited
Belfast to revieAv the Ulster regiments,
and Avas attended by Sir Annesley SteAvart
and Gratten as his aides. He Avas met at
Hillsborough by Mr. Dobbs, Mr. Hamil-
ton, and Mr. Stewart, afterAvards tlie
Marquis of Londonderry. His arriv.al at
Belfast on the 11th of July Avas announ-
ced by a salute of seven guns from the
artillery, Avhich Avas ansAvered by the ships
in the harbour ; and there folloAved a
brilliant revieAv of three thousand men.

The dispatches of Lord Buckingham-
shire to Lord North at this period, are
evidences of a system of doAvnright bribery
— for the purpose of retaining and insur-
ing his parliamentary majority — so gene-
ral and so profuse, that nothing could

134

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

"bear comparison with it, but the worse
corruption by which the Union was car-
ried. Between September 8th, 1780, and
November 19th of the same year, the lord-
lieutenant forwarded several dispatches
to the English minister, in which he re-
commends over one hundred men of rank
and fortune, and some of their wives, to
rewards for past services, or to bribes for
prospective services. Sir Kobert Deane,
an uniform and laborious drudge, impeded
by no conscience and burdened by no prin-
ciple, who, as his viceregal eulogist re-
marks, always with firm friends supported
Government and never suggested a difficulty,
was recommended for a peerage. Several
other men with similar services to pa-
rade, with just the same degree of con-
science or principle, had their claims for
a degraded honour allowed by the lord-
lieutenant.*

The dispatches of this viceroy in these
two months (September and October,
1780) are extant, and should be rendered
familar reading to all those who are dis-
})osed to trust in the integrity and the

* The sources of patrician honours in Ireland, it is
much to be regi-etted, are very impure and tainted.
From this censure must of course be excepted the
ancient aristocracy of the land, in whose veins still
runs an honourable stream, uncontaminated by the
impurity of the Williamite, or Union creation. The
.<uccesive creations in Cromwell’s and 'William’s
time, and at the Union, deepen in infamy as they
approach our own days. The parties recommended
for honours in Lord Buckingham’s profligate dis-
patches, some of w’hose names are inserted in this
note, have different qualifications ; one is poor,
another who is rich has poor relations ; there is no
political profligate, however wealthy or embar-
rassed, that is not recommended for promotion or
pay, in his own person or in that of some conveni-
ent relative. Amongst the rest. Lords Mountcashel,
Enniskillen, Carlow, and Farnham, are recom-
mended for earldoms. In the general recommenda-
tions are the names of James Carigue Ponsonby,
Charles Henry Cooke, Francis Bernard Beamish,
Ponsonby Tottenham, James Somerville, William
Cauldfield, Thomas Nesbitt, Sir Boyle Roche, Dame
Jane Heron, and other honourable persons. The
following is curious ; it is in a letter to Lord
Hillsborough from the lord-lieutenant ;

“ With respect to the noblemen and gentlemen
whose requests have not succeeded, I must say that
no man can see the inconvenience of increasing the
number of peers more forcibly than myself, but the
recommendation of many of those persons submitted to
his majesty for that honour, arose fkom engagements
TAKEN UP AT THE PRESS OF THE MOMENT, TO
SECURE QUESTIONS UPON WHICH THE ENGLISH
(Government were very particularly anxious.
IMy sentiments cannot but be the same with respect
to the Privy Council and pensions, and I had not
contracted any absolute engagements of recommendor-
t ion either to peerage or pension, till difficulties
AROSE which necessarily occasioned so much and
so forcibly communicated anxiety in his majesty's
cabinet, that I must have been culpable in neglect-
ing ANY POSSIBLE MEANS OF SECURING A MAJORITY
IN THE House of Commons: IMr. Townshend -was
particularly recommended to me by Lord Shannon
for a seat in the Privy Council, and I have reason
to think his lordship is extremely anxious for his
success.”

promises of English statesmen,* In the
Houses, both of Lords and Commons, his
management was too successful, and the
people now looked upon Parliament as
their worst enemy. On the 2nd of Sep-
tember, 1780, Lord Buckinghamshire pro-
rogued the servile Parliament with one
of those speeches, half cant and half sar-
casm, which Avere then, and are now, the
usual kind of viceregal addresses in Ire-
land. He thanked the House for their
“ liberal supplies ” (for Avhich the people
cursed them), and added, “ your cheerful-
ness in giving them, and your attention
to the ease of the subject in the mode of
raising them, must be very acceptable to
his majesty ; on my part, I assure you
they shall he faithfully applied” To both
Houses he said that “ the heart of every
Irishman must exult at the fair scene of
prosperity now opening to his country,”
congratulated them on the commercial re-
laxations, which he called “ the diffusive
indulgence of his majesty ; ” and so took
his leave, both of that Parliament, and of
Ireland. Fortunately, the cause of Ire-
land at that day rested neither upon him
nor upon them. He Avas recalled soon
after ; and on the 23rd of December, 1780,
Lord Carlisle Avas appointed in his place.

CHAPTER XX.

1781—1782.

Parliament. — Thanks to the Volunteers. — Habeas
Corpus. — Trade with Portugal. — Grattan’s finan-
cial expose. — Gardiner's measure for Catholic
Relief. — Dungannon. — The loth of February,
1782. — Debates on Gardiner’s Bill. — Grattan's
Speech. — Details of this measure. — Burke’s opin-
ion of it. — ^Address to the King asserting Irish
Independence. — England yields at once. — Act
repealing the 6th George I. — Repeal of Poyniugs’
Law. — Irish Independence,

There is small interest in following the
details of parliamentary business during
the first year of Lord Carlisle’s vice-
royalty; because it Avas every day more
evident that the poAver Avhich Avould decide
the destinies of the country lay outside
the Avails of Parliament. Indeed, on the
discussion of the Perpetual Mutiny Bill
for Ireland, Grattan had declared that if
it passed into Irav he Avould secede, and
appeal to the people ; a formidable threat
at a moment Avhen the people Avere in such
a good condition to hear and decide such
an appeal. Lord Carlisle Avas accom-

* They are to be found in Grattan’s Life, by his
son, vol. ii.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

135

panied by Mr. Eden, as secretary, a man
already known by his unsuccessful diplo-
macy in America, and known also by his
hostility to the pretensions of Ireland.
He had written and published a letter
“ On the Representations of Ireland respecting
a Free Tradef of which IVIr. Dobbs, a
stanch patriot, thus writes : — “ Erom a
letter written by Mr. Eden, secretary to
Lord Carlisle, on the subject of Irish
affairs, and which had been answered by
Counsellor Richard Sheridan, Ave had no
great reason to rejoice at this change.” *

On the 9th of October, 1781, the Earl
of Carlisle met the Parliament. There
•was the usual commonplace speech,
recommending the Protestant Charter
Schools ; the linen trade ; assuring Par-
liament of his majesty’s ardent Avishes
for the happiness, etc., of the Irish people;
and even speaking complacently of the
“ spirited offers of assistance ” Avhich had
lately been made to the Government from
overy part of the kingdom, Avhich Avas,
tnough without naming them, a kind of
compliment to the Volunteers. Mr.
O’Neil moA'ed a servile address in reply.
Mr. Grattan, Avho had no idea of suffering
any neglect or disrespect to the Volun-
teers, took notice of the extreme caution
Avith Avhich the address avoided mention-
ing the Avord Volunteer^ that Avholesome
and salutary appellation Avhich he Avished
to familiarize to the royal ear ; he Avould
not, hoAvever, insist on having it inserted,
as he had reason to believe the right
honourable mover did intend to make a
proper mention of those protectors of
their country.

Mr. O’Neill declared he Avas not de-
ceived in this opinion, that the motion
to Avhich he had alluded Avas intended to
thank the Volunteers of Ireland for that
glorious spirit, unexampled in all history,
with Avhich they had so eagerly pressed
forAvard, when the nation Avas thought
to be in danger. He then moved that the
thanks of the House should be given
to all the Volunteers of Ireland, for their
exertions and continuance, and for their
loyal and spirited declarations on the late
exi>ected invasion.

Mr. Conolly seconded the motion. After
some opposition from Mr. Eitzgibbon, the
thanks of the House were voted unani-
mously.

The A^ery next day an important bill Avas
moved for. Ireland had neA^er yet enjoyed
the protection of a Habeas Corpus act ;
nor, indeed, has she ever enjoyed it until
this day, because that laAv has been regu-
larly suspended in Ireland precisely at
the times when it Avas most needed.

* Dobbs’ Hist, of Irish Affairs.

On the 10th of October, 1781, Mr.
Bradstreet, the recorder, a very stanch
Patriot, moved in the House of Commons
for leaA'e to bring in the heads of a Habeas
Corpus bill, prefacing his motion by ob-
serving that the liberty and safety of the
subjects of Ireland Avere insecure until a
Habeas Corpus act should take place ; that
arbitrary poAver had made great strides
and innovations on public liberty, but
Avas effectually restrained by that laAV
Avhich had its full operation in England,
but did not exist in Ireland. It was, he
said, the opinion of a great and learned
judge, that this laAV Avas the grand bul-
Avark of the constitution. Leave Avas
granted ; and IMr. Yelverton and the
recorder Avere ordered to prepare and
bring in the same.

Some feAv other proceedings in this ses-
sion deserve to be noticed. Mr. Grattan
again endeavoured to procure an act for
limitation of the Mutiny Act. Sir Lucius
O’Brien moA^ed for redress in the matter
of Irish trade Avith Portugal; and the
guild of merchants presented a petition
stating that the great adA^antages Av^hich
the nation had been promised by a free-
dom of trade to all the Avorld Avere likely
to prove imaginary ; as from the state of
general Avar our commerce Avas confined to
to a very fcAv nations, and amongst them
the kingdom of Portugal, from Avhich the
greatest hopes had been conceived, had
refused to receiA^e our manufactures, quan-
tities of Avhich Avere then lying stopped in
the custom-house of Lisbon, and jjraying
the House to interfere for redress. The
influence of the Court party, Avhich Avas
still paramount on most questions, Avas
sufficient to prevent any effectual action
on these subjects. The principal care,
indeed, of the new viceroy and his adroit
secretary Avas to prevent or suppress dis-
cussion upon any subject Avhich Avould
tend to open up the great national ques-
tion of independence. Mr. Barry Yelver-
ton, speaking of this motion on the
Portuguese trade, said he “ thought there
had been some design in the speech to
lead their imaginations aAvay from this
important object ; it had, indeed, talked
of Protestant charter schools, making of
roads, digging of canals, and carrying of
corn ; and contained half a dozen lines
that might be found in every sjjeech for
fifty years past ; subjects more proper for
the inquiry of a county grand jury, than
for the great inquest of the nation ; but
not one Avord of our trade to Portugal ;
that had been designedly omitted.”

The same Mr. Yeh^erton gave notice of
a motion to bring in a bill to regulate the
transmission of bills to England ; in other

136

HISTOKY OF IRELAND.

■srords, for a repeal of Poynings’ Law,
INIany of the Patriots now saw that the
mind and spirit of the nation were firmly
bent on one great purpose ; and accord-
ingly they began to be desirous, each to
have his own name well forward as a
mover in the good work. But before
Yelverton’s motion, arrived ofiicial news
of that most happy and propitious event
— the surrender of Lord CoriiAvallis and
his army to the French and Americans at
YorktOAvn. With a polite affectation of
grief, Yelverton abandoned his motion,
and moved instead an address to the king
expressive of sympathy and unalterable
attachment, “ and to entreat his majesty
to belieA'e that Ave hold it to be our indis-
pensable duty, as it is our most hearty
inclination, cheerfully to support his ma-
jesty to the utmost of our abilites, in all
such measures as can tend to defeat the
confedracy of his majesty’s enemies, and
to restore the blessings of a lasting and
honourable peace,”

Several friends of Mr. Yeh^erton’s, con-
ceiving that liis motion Avould commit
them into an approbation and support of
the American War, on that account alone
declined supporting it : the question, hoAv-
CA'er, being i)ut, the motion Avas carried
by a majoritA' of 1G7 against 37.

* In this session, also, Mr. Grattan made
an expose of the financial condition of tlie
country. This speech led to no action,
but is AA'orth some attention, because it
shoAvs toAvhat a hopless state of embar-
rassment, or rather national ruin, Ireland
had been reduced. As usual, Grattan
spoke Avith bold and bitter personal allu-
sion, careless of the fact that perhaps the
majority of his auditors Avere themselves
corrupt pensioners on the public treasurju
“Your debt,” said he, “including annui-
ties, is £2,007,600; of this debt, in the
last fourteen years, you have borroAved
aboA'e £1,900,000, in the last eight years
above £1,500,000, and in the last tAvo
years £9l6,006. I state not only the fact
of your debt, but the progress of your
accumulation, to shoAv the rapid mortality
of your distemper, the accelerated velocity
Avith Avhich you advance to ruin ; and if
the question stood alone on this ground,
it would stand firm ; for I must further
observe, that if this enormous debt be the
debt of the peace establishment, not
accumulated by directing the artillery of
your arms against a foreign enemy, but
by directing the artillery of your treasury
against your constitution, it is a debt of
patronage and prostitution.”

He next Avent into an account of the
revenues and expenditures of the king-
dom ; shoAved that the increase of expenses

for tAvo years amounted to £550,000, Avhile
the increase of revenue for the same tAvo
years Avas but £60,000; and that this
profligate system AA'as only confirmed and
aggravated each succeeding year. Then
he proceeded — “I have stated your ex-
penses as exceeding your income £484,000,
and as having increased in fourteen years
above half a million. As to the applica-
tion of your money, I am ashamed to state
it ; let the minister defend it ; let him
defend the scandal of giving pensions,
directly or indirectly, to the first of the
nobility, A\uth as little honour to them
Avho receive, as to the king avIio giA'es.
Let him defend the minute corruption
AA'hich in small bribes and annuities leaves
honourable gentlemen poor, Avhile it makes-
them dependent.”

On the 11th of December, Mr. Flood,
Avho Avas anxious that he also should be
on the record prominently against the
obnoxious Poynings’ LaAv, brought for-
Avard a motion for the appointment of a
committee “ to explain the LaAv of Poyn-
ings.” He made a learned and statesman-
like speech, Avas ansA\ered by a Court
member ; and his motion Avas voted down,
by 139 against 67.

This same session an effort Avas made
by iMr. Luke Gardiner (afteiuA-ards Lord
Mountjoy) to procure a measure of relief
for the Catholics. This gentleman, like
Lord Charlemont, had lately returned
from a residence in Europe ; and had
often lamented since his return that Ire-
land, he AA'as ashamed to confess, Avas the
most intolerant country. Catholic or Pro-
testant, in all the Avorld. On the 13th of
December he gave notice of his intention
to bring in the heads of a bill for some
mitigation of the penal laAvs. A feAv days
after, A\’hen Mr. Gardiner introduced the
subject again, Grattan Avarmly and eagerly
gave his support in adA'ance to some large
and just measure, including both Catho-
lics and Dissenters, declaring emphati-
cally that “ it should be the business of
Parliament to unite every denomination
of Irishmen in brotherly affection and
regard to the constitution.” Every de-
nomination of Irishmen! Including Ca-
tholics ! It Avas new language in that
House: it Avas the first time perhaps,
since King James’s Parliament, that there
had been so much as a hint of treating
Catholics and Protestants as on an equal
footing before the laAv. No Avonder that
it disquieted Cromwellian squires. Sir
Kichard Johnson nervously iwotested at
once “ that he Avould oppose any bill by
Avhich Papists Avere permitted to bear
ams.”

That Henry Grattan’s idea, though not

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

137

then fully developed, did go the full length
of absolute equality, may be inferred
from a remarkable passage in the end of
his short speech. “It had been well
observed by a gentlemen of first-rate
understanding (a member of the British
Parliament), that Ireland could never
prosper till its inhabitants were a people ;
and though the assertion might seem
strange, that three millions of inhabitants
in that island should not be called a people,
yet the truth Avas so, and so would con-
tinue till the wisdom of Parliament should
unite them by all the bonds of social
affection. Then, and not till then, the
country might hope to prosper.”

This bill of Mr. Gardiner, which was
very cautious and modest, merely relaxing
a little further the rigours of the laws
which debarred Catholics from having
property and from educating their child-
ren, was postponed from week to Aveek,
and Avas still pending when the great
event of the century (for Ireland) took
place in the parish church of Dungannon,
in the county of Tyrone. It should be
mentioned that there AA\as great difference
of opinion among the Volunteers Avith
respect to any indulgence Avhatever shoAAm
to Papists ; and that in particular the
Sligo Volunteers, commanded by Mr.
Wynne, addressed their colonel, requiring
him to use his influence to defeat the
measure. The conduct of these Sligo
Volunteers is admirably rebuked, and the
contrast of their professions and their
intolerance delineated with great poAA^er
and severity in a series of letters in the
FreemarCs Journal of the day, beginning
AA’ith the date of the 19th of January.
1782.

But the cause of the country Avas noAv
removed into another and a higher court
than that of the corrupt Parliament. All
the year 1781 had been a time of active
organization for the Volunteers : the
companies had been formed into regi-
ments, many thousands of Catholics AA^ere
noAv gathered into the organization ;
numerous revieAvs continued to be held ;
and it AA'as determined that the regiments
should noAV be brigaded. On the 28th of
December, 1781, the officers and delegates
of the First Ulster regiment, commanded
by Lord Charlemont, met at Armagh, and
resolved to hold a Convention of the Ulster
delegates at Dungannon. It A\'as the idea
of Grattan ; he had failed in his endeavour
to join issue AAfith England by his Declar-
ation of Right in Parliament, and resoh^ed
now to put himself upon the country.
Both friends and enemies of the Irish
national cause were almost beAvildered by
the boldness of this conception — “ Will

nobody stop that madman, Grattan ? ”
cried Edmund Burke. The Castle, on its
side, hoped that this armed Convention
would put itself in the wrong by some
intemperate violence or plain illegality.
In fact, the language of the resolu-
tions passed at the preliminary meeting
in Armagh was startling.

“ Aeso/yec?, That Avitb the utmost con-
cern we behold the little attention
paid to the constitutional rights of this
kingdom, by the majority of those whose
duty it is to establish and preserve the
same.

''"Resolved, That to avert the impending
danger from the nation, and to restore the
constitution to its original purity, the
most vigorous and effective methods must
be pursued to root out corruption and
Court influence from the legislath’-e body.

“ Resolved, That to open a path tOAvards
the attaining of this desirable point, it is
absolutely requisite that a meeting be heh I
in tlie most central toAAm of the province
of Ulster, AA’hich we conceive to be Dun-
gannon, to Avhich said meeting every
Volunteer association of the said province
is most earnestly requested to send dele-
gates, then and there to deliberate on the
present alarming situation of public
affairs, and to determine on, and publish
to their country, Avhat may be the result of
said meeting.

^‘"Resolved, That as many real and lasting
advantages may arise to this kingdom
from said intended meeting being held
before the present session of Parliament
is much further adA^anced, Friday, the
15th day of February next, at ten o’clock
in the forenoon, is hereby appointed for
said meeting, at Dungannon,as aforesaid.”

Dungannon Avas then, and is still, but
a small market tOAvn of Tyrone County,
about six miles from the shore of Lough
Neagh. Two hundred years before, it had
been the chief seat and stronghold of
Hugh O’Neill, high-chief of Tyr-eoghain,
who was the most formidable enemy that
English poAver had ever encountered in
Ireland. The little tOAvn had no assembly
room capable of accommodating the meet-
ing ; and it Avas determined to use the
parish church for that purpose. On the
15th of February, from every county of
Ulster, the delegates met. They repre-
sented thirty thousand armed men ; and
felt that they had full poAver and creden-
tials to deliberate and decide for a great
army, not only for the Ulster Volunteers,
but for those of all Ireland. What might
they not have done on that day ! Eng-
land had suffered deep humiliation, and
was truly in imminent peril. In America,
after the surrender of CornAvallis, she

138

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

could not strike another blow. She was
still at war, both with France and with
Spain. In Ireland it would have been
impossible for her to place in the field one
half the number of the Volunteer army;
and even of that half, the Irish regular
force would, without doubt, have frater-
nized with the Volunteers. “ Had they
chosen that mode of action,” says Thomas
McNevin, “ which many amongst them
might have secretly thought the path of
wisdom, as the path of honour, the result
on the destinies of England would have
been perilous indeed. We cannot doubt
the issue of a war. A national army,
composed of the flower of a bold and
valiant people, treading their native and
familiar soil, fighting for home and liber-
ty, commanded by the most distinguished
men in the country, numerous and disci-
plined, and impatient for the field — no
mercenary soldiers, whose mean incentive
was pay and plunder, and rapine, and
hereditary hatred, could have withstood
their glorious onslaught.” But other and
more moderate counsels prevailed ; “ per-
haps wiser,” says Mr. McNevin.

Of the resolutions prepared for the
adoption of the military delegates, the
first was written by Grattan, and the
second by Flood. Mr. Dobbs of Carrick-
fergus, was just about to start for the
Convention, when Grattan, the unchanging
friend of the Catholics, thrust into his
hand the resolution in their favour, which
afterwards passed at Dungannon, with
only two dissenting voices of benighted
Protestants.

On the memorable 15th of February,
1782, “the church of Dungannon was full
to the door.” The representatives of the
regiments of Elster — one hundred and
forty-three corps — marched to the sacred
place of meeting, two and two, dressed in
various uniforms and fully armed. Deeply
they felt the great responsibilities which
had been committed to their prudence and
courage; but they were equal to their
task, and had not lightly pledged their
faith to a trustful country. The aspect
of the church, the temple of religion, in
which, nevertheless, no grander ceremony
was ever performed, was imposing, or, it
might be said, sublime. Never, on that
hill where ancient piety had fixed its seat,
was a nobler offering made to God than
this, when two hundred of the elected
warriors of a people assembled in His
tabernacle, to lay the deep foundations of
a nation’s liberty. Colonel Irwin, a gentle-
man of rank, a man firm and cautious, of
undoubted courage but great prudence,
presided as cliairman. The following
resolutions were then passed • —

“ Whereas, it has been asserted that
Volunteers, as such, cannot with propriety
debate or publish their opinions on poli-
tical subjects, or on the conduct of Par-
liament or political men.

'■'•Resolved, unanimously, That a citizen
by learning the use of arms does not
abandon any of his civil rights.

“ Resolved, unanimously, That a claim
of any body of men, other than the King,
Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make
laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitu-
tional, illegal, and a grievance.

“ Resolved, with one dissenting voice
only. That the powers exercised by the
privy councils of both kingdoms, under,
or under colour or pretence of, the law of
Poynings, are unconstitutional, and a
grievance.

“ Resolved, unanimously. That the ports
of this country are by right open to aU
foreign countries not at war with the
king ; and that any burden thereupon, or
obstruction thereto, save only by the
Parliament of Ireland, are unconstitu-
tional, illegal, and a grievance.

"Resolved, with one dissenting voice
only. That a Mutiny Bill not limited in
point of duration from session to session,
is unconstitutional, and a grievance.

“ Resolved, unanimously, That the inde-
pendence of judges is equally essential to
the impartial administration of justice in
Ireland as in England, and that the refusal
or delay of this right to Ireland, makes a
distinction where there should be no dis-
tinction, may excite jealousy where per-
fect union should prevail, and is in itself
unconstitutional and a grievance.

“ Resolved, with eleven dissenting voices
only. That it is our decided and unalter-
able determination to seek a redress of
these grievances, and we ifiedge ourselves
to each other and to our country, as
freeholders, fellow-citizens, and men of
honour, that we will, at every ensuing
election, support those only who have
supported and will support us therein, and
that will use all constitutional means
to make such our pursuit of redress
speedy and effectual.

“ Resolved, with one dissenting voice
only, that the right honourable and
honourable the minority in Parliament,
who have supported these our constitu-
tional rights, are entitled to our most
grateful thanks, and that the annexed
address be signed by the chairman, and
published with these resolutions.

“ Resolved, unanimously, That four
members from each county of the pro-
vince of Ulster, eleven to be a quorum, be
and are hereby appointed a committee,
till the next general meeting, to act for

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

139

the Volunteer corps here represented,
and, as occasion shall require, to call
general meetings of the province, viz.: —

Lord Visct. Enniskillen,
Col. Mervyn Archdall,
Col. William Irvine,

Col. Robert M‘Clintock,
Col. John Ferguson,

Col. John Montgomery,
Col. Charles Leslie,

Col. Francis Lucas,

Col. Thos. M. Jones,

Col. James Hamilton,
Col. Andrew Thomson,
Lieut.-Col. C. Nesbitt,
Lieut. -Col. A. Stewart,
Major James Patterson,
jMajor Francis Dobbs,
Major James M'Clintock,

Major Charles Duffen,
Capt. John Harvey,

Capt. Robert Campbell,
Capt. Joseph Pollock,
CaptWaddel Cunningham
Capt. Francis Evans,
Capt. John Cope,

Capt. James Dawson,
Capt. James Acheson,
Capt. Daniel Eccles,

Capt. Thomas Dickson,
Capt. David Bell,

Capt. John Coulson,

Capt. Robert Black,

Rev. Wm. Crawford,

Mr. Robert Thomson.

“ Resolved, unanimously, That said com-
mittee do appoint nine of their members
to be a committee in Dublin, in order to
communicate with such other Volunteer
associations in the other provinces as may
think proper to come to similar resolu-
tions, and to deliberate vith them on the
most constitutional means of carrying
them into effect.

“ In consequence of the above resolu-
tions, the committee have appointed the
following gentlemen for said committee,
three to be a quorum, viz.: —

Col. Mervyn Archdall, Major Francis Dobbs,
Col. William Irvine, Capt. Francis Evans,
Col. John Montgomery, Capt. James Dawson,
Col Thomas M. Jones, Capt. Joseph Pollock,
Mr. Robert Thompson.

“ Resolved, unanimously, that the com-
mittee be, and are hereby instructed to
call a general meeting of the province,
within twelve months from this day, or in
fourteen days after the dissolution of the
present Parliament, should such an event
sooner take place.

‘■‘■Resolved, unanimously. That the Court
of Portugal has acted towards this king-
dom, being a part of the British empire, in
such a manner, as to call upon us to de-
clare and pledge ourselves to each other,
that we will not consume any wine of the
growth of Portugal, and that we will, to
the extent of our influence, prevent the
use of said wine, save and except the wine
at present in this kingdom, until such
time as our exports shall be received
in the kingdom of Portugal, as the manu-
factures of part of the British empire.

“ Resolved, with two dissenting voices
only to this and the following resolution.
That we hold the right of private judg-
ment in matters of religion to be equally
sacred in others as ourselves.

“ Resolved, therefore. That as men and
as Irishmen, as Christians and as Pro-
testants, we rejoice in the relaxation of
the penal laws against our Koman Catho-

lic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive
the measure to be fraught with the happi-
est consequences to the union and pro-
sperity of the inhabitants of Ireland.”

Some formal resolutions followed of
thanks to Lord Charlemont, to Colonel
Dawson, who had been active in getting
up the Convention, and to Colonel Irwin.
The meeting terminated by the adoption
of an address to the Patriot minorities in
the Lords and Commons, remarkable for
its comprehensive brevity and admirable
succinct eloquence: —

“My Lords and Gentlemen, — We
thank you for your noble and spirited,
though hitherto ineffectual efforts, in de-
fence of the great constitutional and
commercial rights of your country. Go
on. The almost unanimous voice of the
people is with you ; and in a free country
the voice of the people must prevail. We
know our duty to our Sovereign, and are
loyal. We know our duty to ourselves,
and are resolved to be free. We seek for
our rights, and no more than our rights ;
and, in so just a pursuit, we should doubt
the being of a Providence if we doubted
of success.

“ Signed by order,

“ William Irvine, Chairman.”

Such were the proceedings at Dungan-
non. All Ireland adopted the resolutions ;
and meetings were held in every county
formally to accept the exposition of the
I)ublic mind which the Volunteers of
Ulster had given. The freeholders of
each county, and the grand juries adojited
the resolutions.

The delegates of Connaught met in
pursuance of the requisition of Lord
Clanricarde ; the delegates of Munster
assembled at Cork under the presidency
of Lord Kingsborougli, and the delegates
of Leinster at Dublin under that of
Colonel Henry Flood.

It was in vain that the Government
renewed its old cabals, or made overt
resistance to the progress of the Dungan-
non movement. The example of the North
was followed in every quarter. And what
is peculiarly worthy of notice in the liis-
tory of the day is this, that there was no
diversity of opinion amongst the armed
battalions in the different parts of the
country. Such division of opinion, especi-
ally on the subject of the Catholics, might
naturally have been expected; but the
result Avas one of great and singular
unanimity on the important topics which
agitated the public mind. The Dungannon
resolutions constitute the character of
Irish freedom, embracing all the points
necessary for the perfect independence of

140

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

the country, legislative freedom, control
over the army, religious equality, and
freedom of trade. They are the summary
of the political requisitions of the Patriot
party in the Parliament for Avhich they
had been struggling since the days of
Molyneux, for which it was vain to
struggle until an armed force was ready
to take the field in their behalf. And no
one can read the history of this great
Convention without feeling that it was
virtually a declaration of war, with the
alternative of a full concession of all the
points of the charter of liberty. The
Dungannon delegates were empowered by
the nation, speaking through her armed
citizens, to make terms or to enforce her
rights ; a hundred thousand swords were
ready to obey their commands. England
could not have brought into the field one-
half that number ; and the rights of Ire-
land were virtually declared on the 15th
of February. It was a marvellous moder-
ation which contented itself with con-
stitutional liberty in a political connection
with England, and subjection to her
monarch ; it would not have required
another regiment to have struck off the
last link of subjugation and to have es-
tablished the national liberty of Ireland
on a wider basis than any upon which it
ever stood.

In the meantime, and whilst general
liberty was approaching tOAvards its tri-
umph, toleration to the Roman Catholics
was making large and important strides.
The declaration of the Dungannon dele-
gates, so general and so impressive, being
the opinion of the whole armed delegation
of Ulster Avith but two inglorious excep-
tions, had a A^ery great effect through
Ireland. It Avas unfortunate for the sub-
sequent career of the Volunteers that the
principles Avhich their armed representa-
tives propounded at Dungannon, Avere not
adopted by some of their leading minds.
The seeds of ruin lay deep in the intoler-
ant exception of the Catholics from the
general rule of liberty. It Avas uiiAvise,
it AA^as ungracious, it Avas impolitic. Flood
and Charlemont AA’ould have raised a lofty
temple to freedom, but AAmuld not permit
the great preponderant majority of the
nation to enter its gates, nay, even “ to
inscribe their names upon the entabla-
ture.” But, though some of the dis-
tinguished officers of the Volunteers AAmuld
have thus Avithheld the blessings of liberty
from their felloAv-countrymen, it is to be
borne in mind — and principally because
much argument has been based upon
the concessions granted since the Union
by the united legislature to the Catholics
— that the principles of enlightened liber-

ality made a Avonderfully rapid progress
in our native Parliament during the era
of its glory.

Mr. Gardiner’s Catholic Relief bill Avas
introduced on the 15th of February, the
same day on Avhich the Dungannon Con-
vention met in the church of Dungannon.
Fitzgibbon, afterAvards Lord Clare, en-
deaA'oured to defeat the measure by sug-
gesting that it repealed the act of settle-
ment, and disturbed Protestant titles. A
good deal of alarm Avas created by his
opinion, and time Avas taken to inquire
into its soundness. On examination it
Avas considered bad, and the House Avent
into committee on the bill on the 20th of
February, 1782. The measure proposed to
concede to the Catholics, 1st, the enjoy-
ment of property; 2dly, the free exercise of
their religion ; 3dly, the rights of educa-
tion ; 4thly, of marriage; and 5thly, of car-
rying arms. Flood supported the bill, but
ungraciously laboured to establish a dis-
tinction betAveen the rights of property
and the rights of poAver. He said,

“ Though I Avould extend toleration to
the Roman Catholics, yet I Avould not
Avish to make a change in the state, or
enfeeble the GoA^ernment.” Mr. Gardi-
ner, replying to the objection, that if this
bill should ])ass, there AA’ould no longer be
any restraint on Roman Catholics, said —
“But AA’as it not a restraint upon a man
that he could hold no trust nor office in
the state ? That he could not be a mem-
ber of Parliament, a justice, or a grand-
juror? That he could not serA^e in the
army of his country, have a place in the
revenue, be an advocate or attorney, or
even become a freeman of the smallest
corporation ? If gentlemen laboured in-
der these incapacities themselves, Avould
they think them no restraint?” Fitzgib-
bon, Avho had endea\'oured to defeat the
measure at first, on the ground that it
AAmuld disturb Protestant titles, noAv sup-
ported it, saying, that “ though it Avould
be improper to alloAv Papists to becomn
proprietors of boroughs, there Avas no good
reason AA'hy they should not possess estates
in counties, nor Avhy Protestant tenants
holding under them should not enjoy a
right of voting for members of Parlia-
ment.” There Awas no question in this bill
of alloAving them to A'ote themseh'es, still
less of alloAA’ing them to be members of
Parliament. Tdie Attorney-General, Sir
Hercules Langrishe, Sir Henry Caven-
dish, Mr. Ogle, the Pro\mst, Mr. \Yalsh,
Mr. Daly, Sir Boyle Roche, and Mr. Bag-
nal, spoke Avarmly for the bill. In the
course of the several debates upon these
measures of Mr. Gardiner, there Avere
many objectors to each clause, and their

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

141

objections rested on diverse grounds. Mr.
Flood’s vehement opposition to giving the
Catholics any rights which might gradu-
ally invest them with political power was
sustained by IVIr. Montgomery, Mr. War-
burton, Mr. Rowley, Mr. John Burke and
Mr. St. George. Many members, to their
immortal honour, expressed themselves
plainly and unreservedly as in favour of
wiping off the whole Penal Code at once,
not only in justice to the Catholics, but
for the benefit of the whole country.
Amongst these we find the names of Sir
Lucius O’Brien, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Hussey
Burgh, Mr. Yelverton, Mr. Dillon, Captain
Hall, and Mr. Mossom. The clause per-
mitting Catholics to go abroad for educa-
tion was strenuously resisted by Fitz-
gibbon. Mason, Bushe, and others. It is
needless to say that Mr. Grattan supported
all the bills, and all their clauses. Indeed
the debates are chiefly interesting because
they were the occasion of the enunciation
by him, for the first time, of the grand
■and generous thought of a true Irish
nationality. He said — “I object to any
delay which can be given to this clause ;
we have already considered the subject
on a larger scale, and this is but a part of
what the clause originally contained. We
have before us the example of England,
who, four years ago, granted Catholics a
right of taking land in fee ; the question
is merely, whether we shall give this right
or not, and if we give it, whether it shall
be accompanied by all its natural advan-
tages ? Three years ago, when this ques-
tion was debated in this House, there Avas
a majority of three against granting Ca-
tholics estates in fee, and they were only
allowed to take leases of 999 years. The
argument then used against granting them
the fee was, that they might influence
elections. It has this day been shown
that they may have as effectual an influ-
ence by possessing leases of 999 years, as
they can have by possessing the fee ; at
that time, I do declare, I was somewhat
prejudiced against granting Roman Ca-
tholics estates in fee, but their conduct
since that period has fully convinced me
of their true attachment to this country.
When this country had resolved no longer
to crouch beneath the burden of oppres-
sion that England had laid upon her ; when
she armed in defence of her rights, and a
high-spirited people demanded a free
trade, did the Roman Catholics desert
their fellow-countrymen ? No : they were
found amongst the foremost. When it
was afterwards thought necessary to
assert a free constitution, the Roman
Catholics displayed their public virtue ;
they did not endeavour to take ad-

vantage of your situation ; they did
not endeavour to make terms for them-
selves, but they entered frankly and
heartily into the cause of the country;
judging by their own virtue, that they
might depend upon your generosity for
their reward. But now, after you have
obtained a free trade, after the voice of
the nation has asserted her independence,
they approach this House as humble sup-
j)liants, and beg to be admitted to the
common rights of men. Upon the occa-
sions I have mentioned, I did carefully
observe their actions, and did then deter-
mine to support their cause whenever it
came before this House, and to bear a
strong testimony of the constitutional
principles of the Catholic body. Nor
should it be mentioned as a reproach to
them that they fought under the banner
of King Janies, when we recollect that
before they entered the field, they extorted
from him a Magna Charta— a British con-
stitution. In 1779, when the fleets of
Bourbon hovered on our coasts, and the
Irish nation roused herself to arms, did
the Roman Catholics stand aloof? Or
did they, as might be expected from
their oppressed situation, offer assis-
tance to the enemy ? No ; they poured
in subscriptions for the service of their
country, or they pressed into the ranks
of her glorious Volunteers.

“It has been shown that this clause
grants the Roman Catholics no new power
in the state ; every argument, therefore,
which goes against this clause goes against
their having leases for 999 years, every
argument which goes against their having
leases for 999 years, goes against their
having any leases at all ; and every argu-
ment which goes against their having pro-
perty, goes against their having existence
in this land. The question is now, whether
we shall grant Roman Catholics a power of
enjoying estates, or whether we shall be
a Protestant settlement or an Irish nation?
Whether we shall throw open the gates
of the temple of liberty to all our country-
men, or whether we shall confine them in
bondage by penal laws ? So long as the
Penal Code remains, we never can be a
great nation ; the Penal Code is the shell
in which the Protestant power has been
hatched, and now it is become a bird, it
must burst the shell asunder, or j)erish in
it. I give my consent to the clause in its
principle, extent, and boldness, and give
my consent to it as the most likely
means of obtaining a victory over
the prejudices of Catholics, and over our
own. I give my consent to it, because I
would not keep two millions of my fellow-
subjects in a state of slavery ; and because.

142

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

as the mover of the Declaration of Eights,
I should be ashamed of giving freedom to
hut six hundred thousand of my country-
men, when I could extend it to two millions
more.”

The relief measures of Mr. Gardiner
were contained in three separate bills,
very cautiously and moderately prepared,
in order to avoid too rude a shock to the
Protestant Ascendency. To read these
bills with their restrictions and excep-
tions, gives a vivid idea of what Protes-
tant Ascendency in Ireland then was.
The first enables Catholics to take and
hold, in the same manner as Protestants,
any lands and hereditaments except ad-
vowsons, manors, and boroughs returning
members to Parliament. It removes seve-
ral penalties from such of the clergy as
should have taken the oath and been
registered; it confines its operation to
the regular clergy then within that
kingdom (by which the succession of
other regulars from abroad might be pre-
vented), it deprives any clergyman offici-
ating in a church or chapel with a steeple
or bell of the benefit of the act, and re-
peals several of the most obnoxious parts
of the acts of Anne and Geo. I. and
Geo. II.

The second of the series of measures
related to education — “An act to allow
persons professing the Popish religion to
teach schools, and for regulating the edu-
cation of Papists,” etc. It repeals certain
parts of the acts of William and Anne,
which inflcted on any Catholic teaching
school, or privately instructing youth in
learning, the same pains, penalties, and
forfeitures as any Popish regular clergy-
man was subjected to (transportation, and
in case of return, deatli), but excepts, out
of its benefits, those who should not have
taken the oath of allegiance, who should
receive a Protestant scholar, or who should
become ushers under Protestant school-
masters. The act also enables Catholics
(except ecclesiastics) to be guardians to
their own or any other Popish child.
These two first bills passed, and became
law.

The third bill was for permitting inter-
marriages between Protestants and Pa-
j)ists : but the liberality of the House had
not yet arrived at such a revolutionary
point : they felt that they must draw the
line somewhere ; so they threw c ut this bill
by a majority of eight.

Yet these wretched and pitiful measures,
which by their small relaxations only made
more offensively conspicuous the great
oppression of the Penal Code, were re-
garded in Ireland as a mighty effort of
liberalism. jMr. Burke, who had a soul

great enough to see the matter in its true
light, thus speaks of these bills in his let-
ter to a noble lord : — “ To look at the bill,
in the abstract, it is neither more nor less
than a renewed act of universal, unmiti-
gated, indispensable, exceptionless disqua-
lification. One would imagine that a bill
inflicting such a multitude of incapacities
had followed on the heels of a conquest
made by a very fierce enemy, under the
impression of recent animosity and resent-
ment. No man, on reading that bill, could
imagine that he was reading an act of
amnesty and indulgence. This I say on
memory. It recites the oath, and that
Catholics ought to be considered as good
and loyal subjects to his majesty, his
crown, and government; then follows a
universal exclusion of those good and
loyal subjects from every, even the low-
est, office of trust and profit, or from any
vote at an election ; from any privilege in
a town corporate ; from being even a free-
man of such corporations ; from serving
on grand juries ; from a vote at a vestry ;
from having a gun in his house ; from be-
ing a barrister, attorney, solicitor, or, etc.,
etc., etc.

“ This has surely more of the air of a
table of proscriptions than an act of grace.
What must we suppose the laws concern-
ing those good subjects to have been, of
which this is a relaxation ? When a very
great portion of the labour of individuals
goes to the state, and is by the state again
refunded to individuals through the me-
dium of offices, and in this circuitous pro-
gress from the public to the private fund,
indemnifies the families from whom it is
taken, an equitable balance between the
Government and the subject is established.
But if a great body of the people who con-
tribute to this state lottery are excluded
from all the prizes, the stopping the cir-
culation with regard to them must be a
most cruel hardship, amounting in effect
to being double and treble taxed, and
will be felt as such to the very quick
by all the families, high and low, of those
hundreds of thousands who are denied
their chance in the returned fruits of
their own industry. This is the thing
meant by those who look on the public
revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally
wish to have as few as possible concerned
in the division of the booty. If a state
should be so unhappy as to think it can-
not subsist without such a barbarous pro-
scription, the persons so proscribed ought
to be indemnified by the remission of a
large part of their taxes, by an immunity
from the offices of public burden, and by
an exemption from being pressed into
any military or naval service. Why are

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

143

Catholics excluded from the law ? Do not
they expend money in their suits ? Why
may not they indemnify themselves by
profiting in the persons of some for the
losses incurred by others? Why may
they not have persons of confidence,
whom they may, if they please, employ in
the agency of their affairs ? The exclu-
sion from the law, from grand juries, from
sheriffships, under-sheriffships, as well as
freedom in any corporation, may subject
them to dreadful hardships, as it may ex-
clude them wholly from all that is bene-
ficial, and expose them to all that is mis-
chievous in a trial by jury.”

It has seemed needful to go into details
on the provisions of these bills of Mr.
Gardiner, in order to show that, at the
very moment when Ireland was proclaim-
ing her independence, and preparing to
fight for it— relying, too, upon the aid of
the Catholic people— there were few in-
deed who so much as dreamed of making
those Catholics citizens or members of
civil society. This radical vice is quite
enough to account for the short life of
Ireland as an independent nation. In
truth, nobody in Europe had any idea of
religious equality ; none doubted the right
of the orthodox to possess themselves of
the lands and goods of the heterodox un-
til a few years after this period, when
Erance gave the noble example of abso-
lute equality before the law for all reli-
gions.

In the course of this same eventful
February, Grattan brought on a new mo-
tion for an address to the king declaring
the rights of Ireland. But within that
corrupted atmosphere, upon those bribed
benches, was the very worst place for
liberty to breathe.

The time had not yet arrived, though it
was near at hand, for the Irish Parliament
to assent to the proposition of its own
freedom. They started back reluctant
from the glowing form of Liberty; not
even with a nation in arms behind them,
and with a man of the inspired eloquence
of Grattan amongst their sordid ranks,
could their valour and his genius triumph
oyer the inveterate corruption and ser-
vility of that House. Grattan’s motion
was lost by a majority of 137 to 68. But
the fate of that statesman who had long
sat at the fountain head of corruption, and
who ministered so liberally to the profli-
gacy of the Irish majority — the worst
minister that England ever had, whose
obstinate perseverance in principles op-
posed to the theory of the British consti-
tution, lost to England the noblest mem-
ber of her great confederation— was at
length sealed. He was obliged to relin-

quish, with disgrace, the post he had held
with dishonour. Defeat and disaster fol-
lowed Lord North into his retirement.
He was succeeded by Lord Rockingham
and Charles Fox; Lord Carslisle was
recalled, and the Duke of Portland was
chosen to administer the complicated
affairs of Ireland. Grattan, on the 14th
of March, declared that he would Iwing
on the Declaration of Rights, and he
moved, and succeeded in carrying a very
unusual summons, that the House be
called over on Tuesday, the 16th of April
next, and that the Speaker do write cir-
cular letters to the members, ortlering
them to attend that day as they tender the
rights of the Irish Parliament.

The Duke of Portland made a trium-
phant entry into Dublin, and he was
welcomed, for no good reason that the
history of the times can give, with the
loudest acclamations. His arrival ap-
peared to promise the fulfllment of all the
hopes of Ireland, and he received by anti-
cipation, a gratitude which he never
deserved. But his coming had been pre-
ceded by some of the habitual policy of
his party. Letters of honeyed courtesy,
as hollow as they were sweet, were dis-
patched by Fox to “ his old and esteemed
friend the good Earl of Charlemont.” *
Whig diplomacy and cunning never con-
cocted a more singular piece of writing.
He alludes with graceful familiarity to
the long and pleasing friendship which
had existed between them, and after a
variety of compliments, begs for a post-
ponement of the House for three weeks,
in order that the Duke of Portland might
have an opportunity of inquiring into the
opinions of Lord Charlemont, and of
gentlemen of the first weight and con-
sequence. But Fox was well aware
of their opinions. They Avere recorded
in the votes and speeches of the two
Houses, and in the military transac-
tions of the Volunteers. No man knew
them better than Fox. He had been in
communication with the leaders of the
Patriot party, and was well aware of the
merits of their claims. And his proposi-
tion was a feeble device to try the chapter
of accidents. But Charlemont was firm,
for Grattan would give “ no time.” The
general of the Volunteers replied in terms
of courteous dignity but unwonted deter-
mination. He told the wily minister of
England that the Declaration of Rights
was universally looked up to as an essen-
tial and necessary preliminary to any
confidence in the new adminstration. “We
ask for our rights — our incontrovertible
rights — restore them to us, and forever

* Hardy’s Life of Charlemont, a’oI. ii., p. 4.

144

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

unite in the closest and best riveted bonds
of affection, the kingdom of Ireland to her
beloved, though hitherto unkind sister.”
This was the sentimental cant of politics ;
but the upshot was, that the Declaration
of Eights was to be moved on the 16th of
April, and it was only left to the genius
of intrigue to yield with assumed grace
what England dared no longer withhold.
Jso civil letters to courtly vanity — no
philosophic generalities and specious pro-
mises could effect anything with Volun-
teer artillery. The epistles had all the
graces of Horace Walpole, and were
abmidant in compliments: the compli-
ments were returned, but the Declaration
was retained. Grattan, if liis own wisdom
could haAX allowed it, would not have
dared to pause. He stood in the first
rank — a hundred thousand men were be-
hind him in arms — he could not hesitate.
It was his glory and his wisdom to
advance. And he advanced in good ear-
nest, nor staid his foot till it was planted
on the ruins of usurpation.

On the 9th of April, Eox communicated
to the House of Commons in England, the
following message from the king : —

“ George K., his majesty, being con-
cerned to find that discontent and jeal-
ousies are prevailing among his loyal
subjects in Ireland upon matters of great
weight and importance, earnestly recom-
mends to this House to take the same into
their most serious consideration, in order
to such a final adjustment as may give
luutual satisfaction to both kingdoms.
G. E.”

A similar communication was made to
the Irish Parliament by John Hely Hut-
chinson, principal secretary of state in
Ireland, who, at the same time stated that
he had miiformly maintained the right of
Ireland to independent and exclusive legis-
lation, and declared that he would give his
earnest support to any assertion of that
right, whether by vote of the House, by
address, or by enactment.

A scene of still greater excitement and
interest occurred on this occasion, and
that which has so carried away the citi-
zens of Dublin two years before, when
Grattan first introduced the question of
Irish rights. The nation had become
strong and confident by success— they
had achieved free trade — their military
organization had attained the greatest
perfection of discipline and skill — their
progress was, indeed, triumphant, they
had but one short step to take. There
was, therefore, great excitement through
Ireland as to the issue of Grattan’s Decla-
ration of Eight, not that they apprehended
failure, but that all men felt anxious to

see the realization of their splendid hopes.
The streets of Dublin were lined with the
Volunteers — the House of Commons was
a great centre, round which all the city
appeared moving. Inside, rank and fa-
shion and genius were assembled ; outside,
arms were glistening and drums sound-
ing. It was the commencement of a new
government, and the king had sent a mes-
sage of peace to Ireland.

The message was similar to that deli-
vered to the English House, and when
it had been read, Mr. George Ponsonby
moved that an address should be presented,
which might mean anytliing, and meant
nothing. It was to tell his majesty that
the House was thankful for a gracious
message, and that it would take into its
serious consideration the discontents and
jealousies which had arisen in Ireland,
the causes of which should be investigated
with all convenient dispatch, and be sub-
mitted to the royal justice and wisdom of
his majesty.

When this motion, very full of the
solemn plausibilities of loyalty and the
generalities of pretended patriotism, was
made, Henry Grattan rose to move his
amendment. It was a moment of great
interest. The success of the motion was
certain, but all parties were anxious to
learn the extent of the demands Avhich
Grattan was about to make. As the
“ herald and oracle of his armed country-
men” he moved the amendment which
contained the rights of Ireland ; and con-
fident of its success, he apostrophised his
country as already free, and appealed to
the memory of those great men who had
first taught the doctrine of liberty which
his nobler genius had realised. He
moved :

“ That a humble address be presented
to his majesty, to return his majesty the
thanks of this House for his most gracious
message to this House, signified by his
grace the lord-lieutenant.

“ To assure his majesty of our un-
shaken attachment to his majesty’s per-
son and government, and of our lively
sense of his paternal care in thus taking
the lead to administer content to his ma-
jesty’s subjects of Ireland.

“ That, thus encouraged by his royal
interposition, we shall beg leave, with all
duty and affection, to lay before his ma-
jesty the causes of our discontents and
jealousies. To assure his majesty that
his subjects of Ireland are a free people.
That the crown of Ireland is an imperial
crown inseparably annexed to the crown
of Great Britain, on which connection the
interests and happiness of both nations
essentially depend ; but that the kingdom

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

145

^)f Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a
I’arliament of her own — the sole legisla-
ture thereof. That there is no body of
men competent to make laws to bind this
nation except the King, Lords, and Com-
mons, of Ireland ; nor any other Parlia-
ment which hath any authority or power
of any sort whatsoever in this country
save only the Parliament of Ireland. To
assure his majesty, that we humbly con-
ceive that in this right the very essence of
nur liberties exists ; a right which we, on
the part of all the people of Ireland, do
claim as their birthright, and which we
cannot yield but with our lives.

“ To assure his majesty, that we have
seen with concern certain claims advanced
by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an
act entitled ‘ An act for the better secur-
ing the dependency of Ireland : ’ an act
containing matter entirely irreconcilable
to the fundamental rights of this nation.
That we conceive this act, and the claims
it advances, to be the great and principal
cause of the discontents and jealousies in
this kingdom.

“To assure his majesty, that his majes-
ty’s Commons of Ireland do most sincerely
Avish that all bills which become law in
Ireland should receive the approbation of
his majesty under the seal of Great Bri-
tain ; but that yet we do consider the
practice of suppressing our bills in the
council of Ireland, or altering the same
anywhere, to be another just cause of
discontent and jealousy.

“ To assure his majesty that an act,
entitled ‘ An Act for the better accom-
modation of his majesty’s forces,’ being
unlimited in duration, and defective in
other instances, but passed in that shape
from the particular circumstances of the
times, is another just cause of discontent
and jealousy in this kingdom.

“ That Ave have submitted these, the
principle causes of the present discontent
and jealousy of Ireland, and remain in
humble expectation of redress.”

The address Avas carried unanimously
in both Houses; and Parliament took a
short recess, to alloAv time for the matter
to be dealt Avith in England. Kobody
either in Ireland or England doubted
the issue. It was quite certain that the
declaration of the Irish Parliament Avas
all-sufficient to establish the liberty of the
country.

One may now be allowed to regret that
Lord North’s administration Avas no longer
in poAver. In that case England Avould
have refused concession ; Avould have at-
tempted to enforce her pretensions in Ire-
land : Avar Avould have been the inevitable
result ; Ireland would have necessarily

made an alliance Avith France, Avhose great
Revolution was noAV rapidly approaching;
so there Avould have been happily an end
to the British empire. Unfortunately the
statesmen of that country Avere as Avise
as they Avere treacherous. On the
17th of May, simultaneously in the two
Houses at Westminster, Lord Shelburne
in the Lords and Mr. Fox in the Com-
mons, having read the addresses of the
Irish Parliament, moved — “ That it Avas
the opinion of that House that the act of
the 6th Geo. I., entitled ‘ An Act for the
better securing the dependency of Ireland
vpon the Crown of Great BritabG ought to
be repealed.”

On the the 27th of May, the Duke of
Portland officially communicated to the
Irish Parliament this great and memorable
concession, Avhich he said came from “ the
magnanimity of the king and the Avisdom
of the Parliament ; ” closing his message
Avith these Avords : — “ On my OAvn part I
entertain not the least doubt but that the
same spirit Avhich urged you to share the
freedom of Great Britain Avill confirm you
in your determination to share her fate
also, standing or falling Avith the British
nation.” This is the kind of cant Avhich
has ruined Ireland : yet the plain and
eternal truth — that AAiiile the British na-
tion stands, Ireland must fall, and vice
versa, Avas even then Avell understood by
Irish patriots, and often avoAved by Grat-
tan himself. “ Ireland,” said he, “ Ireland
is in strength; she has acquired that
strength by the Aveakness of Britain, for
Ireland Avas saved Avhen America Avas lost :
Avhen England conquered, Ireland A\’as
coerced ; Avhen she Avas defeated, Ireland
Avas relieved ; and Avhen Charleston Avas
taken, the mutiny and sugar bills Avere
altered. Have you not all of you, Avhen
you heard of a defeat, at the same instant
condoled Avith England, and congratulated
Ireland.”

“ Poynings’ LaAv ” Avas still on the
statute book ; and the Avork of enfran-
chisement Avas not complete until it Avas
repealed : as it Avas an Irish statute, it Avas
the Irish Parliament Avhich had to repeal it;
and this Avas immediately done on motion
of Mr. Yelverton. Grattan introduced a
bill “ to punish mutiny and desertion,”
Avhich repealed the perpetual mutiny act,
and restored to Parliament a due con-
trol OA"er the army ; also another bill
to reA'erse erroneous judgments and de-
crees, a measure Avhich Avas supposed at
the time to ha\"e settled the question of
the final judicature of Ireland, andtoha\’e
taken from the English Lords and King’s
Bench their usurped appellate jurisdiction.

At the same time that the legislature

146

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Avas thus taking securities and guarantees
(as it thought) for permanent independ-
ence, it was not forgetful of the honour-
able debt due to the man Avho, above all
others, had conduced to restore the dignity
and independence of Ireland. Fifty thou-
sand pounds Avere voted to Henry Grattan,
his friends having declined for him the
larger tribute of .£100,000 as at first pro-
posed, and liaA'ing also refused an insidious
offer of the Pho3nix Park and Viceregal
Lodge, Avhich had been made by Mr.
Conolly on the part of the Government.

Ireland Avas noAv, at least formally and
technically, an independent nation.

CIIAPTEll XXI.

1783-1781.

Effects of Independence. — Settleniont not final. —
English plots for the Union. — Corruption of Irish
Parliament. — Enmity of Flood and Grattan. —
Que.stion between them. — Renunciation Act. —
Second Dungannon Convention. — Convention of
Delegates in Dublin. — Catholics excluded from all
Civil Rights. — Lord Kenmare. — Lord Kenmare
disavowed. — Lord Temple. — Knights of St. Pat-
rick.— Portland viceroy. — Judication Bill. — Ha-
beas Corpus. — Bank of Ireland. — Repeal of Test
Act. — Proceedings of Convention. — Flood’s Re-
form Bill. — Rejected. — Convention dissolved. —
End of the Volunteers. — MiUtia.

It Avould be extremely pleasing to liaA'e
noAv to record, that this nation, thus eman-
cipated by a generous impulse of patriot-
ism, and launched forth on a higher and
Avider career of existence, gave a noble
example of public Aurtue, tolerance, purity,
and liberality. Such is not the record Ave
are to give. England had not (of course)
yielded the independence of her “ sister
island” in good faith. Finding herself,
for the moment, unable to crush the rising
spirit of her Irish colony by force, she
feigned to giA-e Avay for a time, Avell deter-
mined to have her revenge, either by fraud
or force, or by any possible combination
of those tAvo agencies. From the A'ery
moment of the acknowledgment of Ire-
land’s freedom, British ministers began to
plot the perpetration of “ the Union.”

The very nobility of nature and unsus-
picious generosity of the leading Irish pa-
triot of the day, so prompt and eager to
gush out in unmerited gratitude, so cor-
dially impatient to put aAA^ay CA’ery sha-
doAv of ill-Avill between the tAvo “ sister
countries,” gaA'e the English administra-
tion a great adA'antage in devising their
plans for our utter ruin.

“ It is difficult,” says Mr. MacNevin,
“ to haA'e much sympathy for the extra-
A'agant amount of gratitude aAvarded to
the British Parliament by the leading
men of the day in Ireland. They treated
the rights of Ireland as though their
establishment Avas not the work of Irish-
men, but the free gift of English magna-
nimity. And the address moA'ed by
Grattan ‘ did jwotest too much.’ ” No-
thing can be imagined more artlessly
innocent than this address moved by Mr,
Grattan in repl}’ to the Auceroy’s official
announcement to Parliament of the repeal
of the declaratory act. It assures his ma-
jesty “ that no constitutional question
betAveen the tAvo countries Avill any longer
exist Avhich can interrupt their harmony,
and that Great Britain as she has ap-
proA'ed our firmness so she may rely on
our affection.” It further assures his
majesty that Ave learn Avith singular
satisfaction the account of his successes
in the East and West Indies,” etc. : —
Avhich Avas doubtlessly extremely polite,
but essentially false and foolish, because
the mover of the address, and every one
Avho voted for it, kneAv Avell that successes
of England anyAvhere in the Avorld Avere
disasters to Ireland.

Lord Clare, aaLo understood the true
relations betAveen the tAvo countries better
than any other Irish statesman, in order
to prove that the transactions of 1782
betAveen Great Britain and Ireland Avere
not considered as final, tells us, that on
the 6th of June the Duke of Portland
thus Avrote to Lord Shelburne : “ I have
the best reason to hope that I shall soon
be enabled to transmit to you the sketch
or outlines of an act of Parliament to be
adopted by the legislatures of the respec-
tive kingdoms, by' Avhich the superintend-
ing poAver and supremacy' of Great Bri-
tain, in all matters of state and general
commerce, Avill be virtually and effectu-
ally acknoAvledged ; that a share of the
expense in carrying on a defensive or
offensive Avar, either in support of our
OAvn dominions, or those of our allies,
shall be borne by Ireland in proportion to
the actual state of her abilities, and that
she Avill adopt CA'ery such regulation as
may be judged necessary by Great Bri-
tain for the better ordering and securing
her trade and commerce Avith foreign na-
tions, or her OAvn colonies and dependen-
cies, consideration being duly' had to the
circumstances of Ireland. I am flattered
Avith the most positive assurances from

and — of their support in

carrying such a bill through both Houses
of Parliament, and I think it most adA'is-
able to bring it to perfection at the pre-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

147

sent moment.” And he hcappened to know
from an official quarter that the sketch
of such an act of Parliament was then
drawn. He knew the gentleman who
framed it, and he knew from the same
quarter that blank, and blank, and blank,
and blank did unequivocally signify their
approbation of it. This communication
was received with the satisfaction which
it demanded by the British cabinet. On
the 9th of June Lord Shelburne wrote to
the Duke of Portland, in answer to his last
dispatch : ‘‘ The contents of your grace’s
letter of the Gth inst. are too important to
hesitate about detaining the messenger,
whilst I assure your grace of the satisfac-
tion which I know your letter will give
the king. I have lived in the most an-
xious expectation of some such measure
offering itself ; nothing prevented my
pressing it in this dispatch, except having
repeatedly stated the just expectations of
this country, I was apprehensive of giving
that the air of demand which would be
better left to a voluntary spirit of justice
and foresight. No matter who has the
merit, let the two kingdoms be one, which
can only be by Ireland now acknowledging
the superintending power and supremacy to
he where nature has placed it, in precise and
unambiguous terms. I am sure I need
not inculcate to your grace the importance
of words in an act which must decide on
the happiness of ages, particularly in what
regards contribution and trade, subjects
most likely to come into frequent ques-
tion.”

It was easy for British statesmen to
find in Ireland the suitable material for
their usual system of corruption ; because
the Parliament did not at all represent
the nation. Not only Avere four-fifths of
the people expressly excluded, as Catho-
lics, from all share in the representation,
but of the three hundred members of the
House of Commons only se\'enty-two
were really returned by the people; 123
sat for “ nomination boroughs,” and re-
presented only their patrons. Fifty-three
peers directly appointed these legislators,
and could also insure by their influence
the election of about ten others. Fifty
commoners also nominated ninety-one
members, and controlled the election of
four others. With such a condition of
the popular representation, the British
ministry knew that they could soon render
it manageable ; and they only waited
till their own foreign troubles should be
over to re-establish the supremacy where
nature has placed it,”

The first evil omen for Ireland was the
rivalry, or rather downright enmity, of
Flood and Grattan. The former had re-

signed his place in order to act freely
with the Patriots, and had laboured by
the side of Grattan in forming and inspir-
ing the Volunteer force, and the potent
public spirit which at length wrested from
England’s reluctant hands the formal
recognition of Ireland’s independence. If
he ranks lower than Grattan on the roll of
the Patriot party, it is because he remained
to the last an enemy of Catholic emanci-
pation, and persisted in favouring that
vicious and petty policy of confining the
nation, with all its powers and rights, to
one-fifth part of the inhabitants.

In the first essential difference between
these two men. Flood ivas clearly in the
right. It was his opinion that a simple
repeal of the declaratory act of George the
First by England Avas not a sufficient
security against the resumption of legis-
lative control. His argument A\-as intel-
ligible enough. The Gth of George the
First Avas only a declaratory act ; a declar-
atory act does not make or unmake but
only declare the laAA^ ; and neither could its
repeal make or unmake the laAv. The
repeal, unless there Avas an express renun-
ciation of the principle, is only a repeal
of the declaration, and not of the legal
principle. The principle remained as
before, unless it AV'as specially renounced.
Many acts had been passed by the British
Parliament binding Ireland, and some of
them before the declaratory act of George.
The act did not legalize these statutes ;
it only declared that the principle of their
enactment AA'as legal — its repeal does not
establish their illegality, but only repeals
the declaration. Flood AA’as historically
right. In the reign of William and Mary,
the English Parliament usurped the ab-
solute right of making Lws for Ireland,
and in 1G91 passed an act to make a fun-
damental alteration in the constitution of
this country by excluding lioinan Catho-
lics, Avho Avere the majority of the nation,
from a seat in the Lords and Commons.
It Avas true, he argued, that the Irish had
renounced the claim of England, but could
such renunciation be equal to a renuncia-
tion by England ? In any controA^ersy
could the assertion of a party in his oaaui
favour be equal to the admission of his
antagonist ? Fitzgibbon Avas of the same
opinion as Flood, and both insisted on an
express renunciation by England.

Grattan, on the other hand, refused the
security of a British statute, and exclaimed
that the people had not come to England
for a charter but Avith a charter, and asked
her to cancel all declarations in opposition
to it. It must be said that Ireland had no
charter. Her Declaration of Eight Avas
not a Bill of Eights, and Flood asked for

148

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

a Bill of Bights. lie was not satisfied
without an express renunciation. But
what guarantee against future usurpation
h}' a future Parliament, was any renunci-
ation, however strong ? The true security
for liberty was the spirit of the people and
the arms of the Volunteers. When the
spirit passed away, renunciations and sta-
tutes Avere not more than parchment — the
faith of England remained the same as
ever, unchangeable.

Whatever Avere the merits of the con-
troversy, it Avas pregnant Avith the Avorst
effects. The Parliament adopted the
AueAvs of Grattan; the Volunteers sided
with Flood. A Bill of Eights, a great
international compact, a plain specific
deed, the statement of the claims of Ire-
land and the pledge of the faith of Eng-
land AAmuld have been satisfactory, and it
must be confessed that men Avere not far
astray in asking for it. But, unfortunately,
the great minds of the day so far partici-
X^ated in the Aveaknesses of humanity as to
yield to small impulses and to plunge
into a rivalry fatal to their country,
in x^l^^ce of uniting their poAvers for
the completion of a noble and glorious
undertaking. It Avas unfortunate for
their glory — it Avas fatal for liberty.*
Flood, though legally right in the argu-
ment and Avise in his suggestions, may
uiiAvittingly have permitted himself to be
influenced by a feeling of jealousy. He
had seen the laurels he had been so long
earning, placed on the broAv of a younger
and certainly a greater man, and his dis-
satisfaction Avas an unfortunate but a na-
tural feeling. On the other hand, Grattan,
Avdiose peculiar Avork Avas the Declaration
of Bights, felt indignant at the imputation
cast on his Avisdom, and the impeachment
of his i)olicy by the measures Avhich Flood
Xwoposed. When Flood Awas refused leave
to bring in his Bill of Bights on the IDth
of June, Grattan, Avdio had opposed it in
one of his finest sx^eeches, moA-ed a resolu-
tion, Avhich appears very indefensible,
“ that the legislature of Ireland is inde-
pendent ; and that any person Avho shall
by Avriting or othei’Avise, maintain that a

* “ It was deeply lamented that at a moment criti-
cal and vital to Ireland beyond all former precedent,
an inveterate and almost vulgar hostility should
have prcA’ented the co-operation of men whose
counsels and talents Avould have secured its inde-
pendence. But that jealous lust for undivided
honour, the eternal enemy of patriots and liberty,
led them away even beyond the ordinary limits of
parliamentary decorum. The old courtiers fanned
the flame — the new ones added fuel to it — and the
independence of Ireland was eventually lost by the
distracting result of their animosities, Avhich in a few
years Avas used as an instrument to annihilate that
A’erj' legislature, the preservation of Avhich had been
the theme of their hostilities.” — Barrington’s Rise
and Fall, chap. xvii.

right in any other country to make laAvs
for Ireland internally or externally exists
or can be revived, is inimical to the peace
of both kingdoms.” It Avas a strong
measure to denounce as a public enemy the
Avary statesman Avho read futurity Avith
more caution than himself. He AvithdreAv
his motion and substituted another : “ that
leave AA-as refused to bring in said heads of
a bill, because the sole and exclush^e right
of legislation, in the Irish Parliament in
all cases, Avhether internally or externally,
hath been already asserted by Ireland ;
and fully, finally, and irrevocably acknoAv-
ledged by the British Parliament.”

The opinion of the LaAA-yers’ corps of
Volunteers Avas in favour of Flood’s inter-
pretation of the constitutional relations of
the tAvo countries. They considered that
repealing a declaration Avas not destroying
a xjrincixde, and that a statute renouncing
any xwe-existing right, Avas an indisx^en
sable guarantee for future security. They
appointed a committee to inquire into the
question, AA liich reported that it Avas neces-
sary that an express renunciation should
accompany the rex>eal of the Gih of George
the First. Whereupon the corps of In-
dependent Dublin Volunteers, of Avhich
Grattan Avas colonel, xwesented him Avirh
an address. They revicAved the Avhole
argument, and ended by requesting their
colonel to assist Avith his hearty concur-
rence and strenuous sux>port, the ox)inions
X)ropounded by a committee “chosen from
the best-informed body in this nation.”
Such an address, including at one and the
same time, an approbation of the course
pursued by Flood, and a request to Grat-
tan to support the doctrines he had from
the first opposed, Avas construed by his
nice sense of honour into a dismissal from
his command. He did not resign lest his
regiment might construe a peremptory re-
signation as an offence. But he told them,
that in the succession of officers, they
Avould have an opportunity “ to indulge
the range of their disx^osition.” He AA’as,
hoAvever, re-elected, nor did he lose the
command until the October of the next
year, Avhen he voted against retrenchment
in the army. The Belfast First Volunteer
company also addressed him. Doubts,
they said, had arisen Avhether the repeal
of the Gth George the First Avas a suffi-
cient renunciation of the x>OAver formerly
exercised over Ireland ; they thought it
advisable that a laAV should be enacted
similar to the addresses Avhich had been
moA^ed to his majesty, and Avhich embodied
the declaration of the Eights of Ireland
Grattan’s ansAver Avas laconic, but explicit
He said he had giA'en the fullest consider-
ation to their suggestions : he Avas sorry

IIISTORr OF IRELAND.

149

he differed from them ; he conceived their
doubts to be ill-founded. With great re-
spect to their opinions, and unalterable
attachment to their interest, he adhered
to the latter. They received a different
answer from Flood, whom they admitted
as a member of their corps. Similar cir-
cumstances occurring in different other
regiments, conduced to foster the evil
passions of those two distinguished men,
until they broke out into a disgraceful
and virulent personal dispute. But there
were worse consequences attending this
unfortunate quarrel. Men whose united
talents and zeal would have rendered se-
cure the edifice of their joint labours
and the monument of their glory, were
prompted to the adoption of different lines
of policy. Grattan refused to advance.
Flood was all for progress. Had both
united to reform the constitution, and to
secure its permanence, that event which
eventually put a period to the existence
of the legislature of Ireland would never
have occurred. A decision in the Court
of King’s Bench of England, by Lord
Mansfield, in an Irish case brought there
by appeal, seemed to affirm the arguments,
and to give weight to the objections of
Flood. Mr. Townshend, in introducing in
the English Commons the Benunciation
Bill (January, 1783), said, that doubts
were entertained as to the sufficiency of
the simple repeal, and had been increased
by a late decision in the Court of King’s
Bench, which, however, he was informed,
the court was bound to give, the case
having come under its cognisance before
any question as to the appellate jurisdic-
tion in Irish matters had been raised. He
then moved “ that leave be given to bring
in a bill for removing and preventing all
doubts which have arisen, or may arise,
concerning the exclusive rights of the
Parliament and courts of Ireland, in mat-
ters of legislation and judicature, and for
preventing any writ of error, or appeal
from any of his majesty’s courts in Ire-
land from being received, heard, or ad-
justed in any of his majesty’s courts in
this kingdom ; and that Mr. Townshend,
General Conway, Mr. Pitt, Mr. William
Grenville, and the Attorney and Solicitor
General do bring in the bill.” The motion
passed without a division, and the Renun-
ciation Bill Avas the result. This Aundicated
the correctness of Flood’s reasoning— it
did not afford any additional security to
liberty. A solemn international compact,
and internal reform of Parliament Avere
still required to render secure and inde-
feasible the settlement of ’82. It is a
matter of serious and graA’e regret, that
Grattan did not take the same leading

part in obtaining parliamentary reform,
and relieving the legislature from internal
influence, as in emancipating it from for-
eign control. He Avould have been a safe
counsellor to the Volunteers ; and had it
been found advisable and consistent Avitli
the spirit of the constitution to appeal to
another assembly of armed delegates, it
Avould have met under better auspices
than the Dublin Convention of 1783 — nor
Avould it have terminated so ignoniiniously.
But he Avas influenced by Aveaker counsels ;
and, admitting that no evil passion of any
kind was busy with him, Ave are forced
to believe that he alloAved his manly judg-
ment to be SAvayed by inferior and timitl
minds. Reform Avas plainly necessary to
the completion of his o>vn labours. The
House of Commons did not represent the
people, nor did its construction give any
guarantee for the security of popular
liberties. Such a body might be forced
into great and extraordinary virtue, as it
Avas in ’82 ; under such unusual influences,
Avith the Volunteers in arms throughout
the Avhole country, and men like Grattan,
Burgh, and Flood amongst them, they
Avere unable to resist the tide that Avas
floAving ; but there Avas no principle of
stability in them, they Avere irresiionsible
and corrupt. Reform Avas the obvious
corollary of the Declaration of Right.
Had the framers of the constitution of ’82
united to consolidate and secure their OAvn
Avork, and ceased from the insane conten-
tions by Avhich they disgraced their suc-
cess ; had they given a poj)ular character
to the legislature Avdiich they freed from
external control, and converted it into the
veritable organ of the national Avill, by
conferring extensive franchises on tlie
people, by including the Catholics in their
scheme, and putting an end to the system
of close boroughs, it Avould haA’e been im-
possible for any English minister, Avithout
a Avar, whose issue A\muld hav'e been doubt-
ful, to destroy the legislative existence
of the country by a union.

And this they could have done. The
Volunteers Avere still in force. One hun-
dred thousand men AA’ere in arms, and had
urgently pressed upon their leaders the
insulficiency of their Avork : they had de-
manded reform in eA^ery provincial meet-
ing*—at Belfast, on the 9th of June,

* Towards the end of 1782, the Government set
on foot a plan whose design was obvious enough —
the embodying of Fencible regiments. The Volun-
teers took fire, and held meetings to oppose it in
every quarter. Galway took the initiative, and was
followed by Dublin and Belfast. The resolutions
passed at the Tholsel in Galway, on the 1st of Sep-
tember, 1782, to the effect that the Volunteers were
most interested in the defence of the country, and
most adequate to the duty — that raising Fencible
regiments without sanction of Parliament, was un-

150

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

1783, a meeting of delegates from thirty-
eight corps of Volunteers assembled after
a review, and adopted the following reso-
lution : —

“ Resolved, unanimously, That at an era
so honourable to the spirit, wisdom, and
loyalty of Ireland, a more equal repre-
sentation of the people in Parliament
deserves the deliberate attention of every
Irishman ; as that alone which can per-
petuate to future ages the inestimable
possession of a free constitution. In this
sentiment we are happy to coincide with
a late decision of the much-respected Vol-
unteer army of the Province of INIunster ;
as Avell as with the opinion of that con-
summate statesman, the late Earl of
Chatham— by whom it was held a fa-
vourite measure for checking venality,
promoting public virtue, and restoring
the native spirit of the constitution.”

Similar meetings were had, and similar
resolutions adopted in every part of Ire-
land. If the spirit of the Volunteers had
been wisely directed, and their exertions
turned into the proper channel, there
seems to be no reason to doubt that the
constitution and liberties of Ireland would
have been firmly secured on a basis
that would have withstood the efforts of
England. In the latter country, the
question of Peform had met witii the
sanction of the Duke of Pichmond and
Mr. Pitt. Peform associations had been
formed, two of which, the “ Yorkshire
Association,” and the London Consti-
tutional Knowledge Society,” entered into
correspondence with the Volunteers, ap-
plauded their spirit, and urged upon them
the utility of holding a national conven-
tion’pf the delegates of the four provinces.

It was a suggestion quite consonant to
their spirit and to their views, and they
lost no time in acting upon it. In the
month of July, 1783, delegates from sev-
eral corps in Ulster summoned a general
assembly of delegates from the entire
province for the 8th of September. Eire
hundred representatives met in pursuance
of this requisition at Dungannon.* Flood
travelled from Dublin to attend, but was
detained on the road by illness. The Earl
of Bristol Avas present, and took an active

constitutional, nor justified by necessity, and might
be dangerous to liberty — were adopted at several
meetings. The Belfast company met, protested
against the measure, and addressed Flood. The
plan was not then carried into execution. It was a
manifest attempt to terrify and overawe the Volun-
teers. They were too strong as yet to submit.

* Jlr. Grattan says this meeting took place at a
meeting-house of dissenters in Belfast. The state-
ment in the text is on the authority of the Historical
Collections relating to Belfast, p. 2.55, and Belfast
Politics, p. 245. See also a pamphlet, History of
the Convention, published in 1784.

part in the proceedings. He aa'us the son of
of Lord Hervey, and made a considerable
figure for a few years in the proceedings of
the V olunteers. There is no man of whom
more opposite opinions are given. Whilst
some represent him as a man of elegant
erudition and extensive learning, others
paint him as possessing parts more bril-
liant than solid, as being generous but
uncertain ; splendid but fantastic ; an
amateur without judgment and a critic
without taste ; engaging but licentious in
conversation ; polite but violent ; in fact,
possessing many of the qualities which
the satirist attributes to another nobleman
of his countr}% the fickle and profligate
Villiers. There could be no greater con-
trasts in his character than in his conduct
and iiosition. He Avore an English coronet
and an Irish mitre ; and some have thought
that he Avas visionary enough to have
assumed the port of the tribune only to
obtain the poAver of a sovereign. He Avas
indeed monarchial in his splendour — his
retinue exceeded that of the most affluent
nobleman — his equipages Avere magnifi-
cent— he delighted in the acclamations
of the populace, and the military escort
AA’hich surrounded his carriage.* He Avas
a man avIio possessed princely qualities ;
he Avas costly, luxurious, munificent, and
in the strange antithesis of his position —
bishop, earl, demagogue— Avas formed to
attract the nation amongst Avhich he had
cast his lot. But his qualities Avere not
dangerous ; Government Avas more afraid
of him than they needed to be ; and he
effected little in the history of his day,
more than playing a splendid j)art in a
transitory pageant.

The second Dungannon ConAvntion
elected for its president Mr. Jas. Stewart,
afterAvards Marquis of Londonderry. He
Avas the friend of Lord Charlemont. They
passed a number of resolutions, but the
most important Avas the folloAving : —

“ Tliat a committee of five persons be
appointed to represent Ulster in a grand
national Convention, to be held at noon,
in the Eoyal Exchange of Dublin, on the
10th of November then ensuing; to Avhich
they hoped that each of the other provinces
Avould send delegates to digest and imb-
lish a plan of parliamentary reform, to
pursue such measures as may appear most
likely to render it effectual ; to adjourn
from time to time, and to com^ene pro-
vincial meetings if found necessar3L”

Addresses Avere issued to the Volunteers
of the three provinces, filled Avith the

* He was escorted to the Rotunda Convention by
a troop of ligrbt dragoons, commanded by his nephew,
George R. Fitzgerald. — Barrington’s Rise and Fall
of the Irisli Nation, c. 7.

iilSTOUY OF IRELAND.

151

noblest sentiments in favour of liberty,
and abundant in the impassioned if not
inflated eloquence in which the spirit of
the day delighted to be clothed. There
was, however, an anomaly in their pro-
ceedings, and a striking and painful con-
trast between their abstract theories of
liberty and their practical manifestation.
A proposition in favour of the Catholics
was rejected. Here was a body of men,
not endowed vdth the powers of legislation,
but acting as a suggestive assembly, dic-
tating to legislation the way in which it
should go, and declaring that freedom
should be made more diffusive in its en-
joyment ; yet they are found, on grave
deliberation, rejecting from their scheme
the vast body of the nation whom they
professed to emancipate and raise. The
jiractical absurdity was the rock on which
they split. And it is said regretfully and
without reproach, that the influence of
this intolerant principle upon their coun-
sels is attributable to Lord Charlemont
and Henry Flood. These good men Avere
the victims of a narrow religious anti-
pathy, which prevented either of them
from rendering permanent service to tlie
cause of liberty.

Tiie interval betAveen the Dungannon
meeting and the Dublin Convention Avas
stormy ; yet the first Parliament in the
viceroyalty of Lord Northington opened
with a vote of thanks to the Volunteers.
This vote Avas the Avork of Government.
It is most probable that it Avas a depreca-
tory measure, and intended to guard
against any violence in the Convention.
This Avas the only measure of conciliation
during the session. Sir Ed Avar d Newen-
ham introduced the question of retrench-
ment in the public expenses, principally
Avith reference to reduction in the army.
It Avas taken up Avarmly by Sir H. Caven-
dish and Henry Flood; and it certainly
did appear as if this enmity to the regular
army was a Volunteer sentiment, so
•strongly did the principal parliamentary
friends of that distinguished body perse-
vere in tbe pressing upon the legislature
the question of retrenchment. Grattan
Avas opposed to any reduction in the regu-
lar forces — he said that it Avas a matter of
compact that they remain at a certain
standard settled in 1782, and he is accor-
dingly found an opponent on all occasions
of CA^ery proposition of retrenchment. The
question A\ms unfortunate ; it led to that
degrading personal discussion Avhich dis-
played the tAvo greatest men in the coun-
try in the discreditable attitude of Aurulent
and vulgar personal animosity. On Sir
H. CaA^endish’s motion for reduction in
±he expenses of the kingdom, Flood eagerly

and eloquently supported the proposition
But Avandering beyond the necessities of
his argument he indulged in some wanton
reflections upon Grattan, and the result
Avas an invective from the latter, so fierce,
implacable, and merciless, that it leaves
behind it at a great distance the finest
specimens of recorded virulence. The
estrangement of these illustrious men Avas
complete. And the triumph of their pas-
sions was one, and not a very remote, cause
of the doAvnfall of their country. They
could no longer unite to serve her ; their
vieAvs, Avhich had differed so Avidely before
thenceforAvard became principles of an-
tagonism, to carry out Avhicli Avas a point
of honour and an instinct of anger ; and
they Avhose combined Avisdom Avould have
rendered liberty secure, became uiiAvit-
tingly her most destructive enemies. The
conservative policy of Grattan, and the
progressive principles of Flood, in the
acrimony of contest and the estrangement
of parties, ga\'e full opportunity to Govern-
ment to perfect that scheme Avhich ended
in the Union.

We have noAv arriA'ed at Avfliat may Avell
be called the last scene of the great poli-
tical and military drama in Avhich the
Volunteers played such a distinguished
part. At a time of great and pressing
public peril, they sprung to arms and
saA'ed their country. Having dispelled
the fears of foreign invasion and secured
the integrity of Ireland, they found Avithin
her OAvn system a greater enemy. They
found trade restricted and legislation
poAverless. They emancipated industry
and commerce ; and they restored a con-
stitution. But Avith their achievements
their ambition increased, and concluding
Avith reason that a constitution must be a
nominal blessing Avhere the Parliament
Avas not freely chosen by the peoj:)le,* they
resolved upon emi)loying their poAverful
organisation to procure a reform in Par-
liament. How far this Avas consistent
Avith their original principle — hoAv far
they should have left to the Parliament
itself the remodelling of its internal struc-
ture, and appealed to its wisdom in their
civilian character, it is difficult to say.
They had asserted at Dungannon — and
the proposition had received the sanction
of the legislature — that a citizen, by learn-
ing the use of arms, did not forfeit the
right of discussing political affairs. Yet
Grattan, in replying to Lord Clare’s speech

* There were three hundred members ; sixty-four
were county members, and about the same number
might be returned with great exertion by the people
in the cities and towns. Tlie remainder were the
close borough members, the nominees of the aris-
tocracy, and invariably the supporters of Govern-
ment.

152

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

on the Union, seems to have insisted that
armed men might make declarations in
favour of liberty, but having recovered
it, they should retire to cultivate the
blessings of peace.* The Volunteers,
however, did not imagine that liberty was
secured until the Parliament was free.
Nor is it easy to understand why, if their
declarations were of value in 1782 to re-
cover a constitution, they should not be
of equal importance in 1783 to reform the
legislature.

Previous to the first meeting of the
Dublin Convention, j>rovincial assemblies
Avere held in Leinster, Munster, and Con-
naught. They passed resolutions similar
to those adopted at Dungannon — delegates
Avere appointed— and the Avhole nation
Avas prepared for the great Congress on
Avhich the fate of Ireland seemed to
depend.

At length, amidst the hush of public
expectation, the excited hopes of the na-
tion, and the fears of GoA'ernment, on
Monday, the 10th of November, one hun-
dred and sixty delegates of the Volunteers
of Ireland met at the Ivoyal Exchange.
They elected Lord Charlemont, chairman,
and John Talbot Ashenhurst and Captain
DaAvson, secretaries, and then adjourned
to the Kotunda. Their progress Avas one
of triumph. The city and county Volun-
teers lined the streets, and received the
delegates, Avho marched tAvo and tAvo
through their ranks, Avith drums beating
and colours flying. Tliousands of specta-
tors Avatched Avith eyes of hopeful admir-
ation the sloAv and solemn march of the
armed representatives to their place of
assembly ; and the air Avas rent Avith the
acclamations of the people. Vain noises
— hapless enthusiasm ! In a feAv Aveeks,
the doors that opened to admit the dele-
gates of one hundred thousand men, Avere
closed upon them Avith inconsiderate haste;
and the fate of the constitution they had
restored Avas sealed amidst sullen gloom
and angry discontent. But popular en-
thusiasm Avas not prophetic, or could only
anticipate from a glorious pageantry a
great result.

The largest room of the Rotunda Avas
arranged for the reception of the delegates.
Semicircular seats, in the manner of an
amphitheatre, Avere ranged around the
chair. The appearance of the house Avas
brilliant: the orchestra Avas filled AA'ith
ladies ; and the excitement of the moment
Avas intense and general. Their first pro-
ceeding Avas to affirm the fundamental
principle of Dungannon, that the right of
political discussion Avas not lost by the
assumption of arms ; but the resolution
* Grattan’s Miscellaneous AVorks, p. 98.

Avas Avorded in that spirit of exclusion
Avhich Avas the bane and the destruction of
the Volunteers.

It Avas “ Resolved, That the Protestant
inhabitants of this country are required
by the statute laAv to carry arms, and to
learn the use of them,” etc.

It seems difficult at this day to account
for the narroAv and perverse policy Avhich
prevailed in this Coiwention AAuth regard
to the Catholics. The delegates forming
that body had it in their poAver to lay the
foundations of the neAAdy liberated nation
deep in the hearts and interests of the
Avhole people, and thus defy both the arts
and arms of England to enslave a united
Ireland. They perversely threw aAvay
this noble opportunity : their Avork of re-
generating their country Avas but half
done ; English intrigue Avas soon busy on
the large field thus left for its operation ;
:md it cannot be thought Avonderful if
very many of the Catholics afterAvards
became reconciled to the fatal idea of a
legislatiA'e union AA'ith England, as afford-
a better chance for their emancipation
than liA'ing under the bitter and intolerant
exclusiveness of the Irish Ascendency.

A very shameful incident occurred on
one of the early days of this Convention
meeting. It Avas knoAvn that there Avere
some members of it Avho strongly urged
some measure of relief to the Catholics,,
especially the restoration of their elective
franchise; Avhen Sir Boyle Roche, a mem-
ber of Parliament, chiefly knoAvn by his
good bulls and bad jokes, appeared on the
floor, and obtained permission, though not
a member of the Convention, to make an
announcement Avith Avhich he said he had
been charged by Lord Kenmare, a Catholic
nobleman : “ That noble Lord,” said Sir
Boyle Roche, “ and others of his creed, dis-
avoAved any Avish of being concerned in the
business of elections, and fully' sensible
of the faA'Ours already' bestoAved upon
them by Parliament felt but one desire, to
enjoy them in peace, Avithout seeking in
the present distracted state of affairs to
raise jealousies, and further embarass the
nation by asking for more.” *

This AA'as on the 14th of November.
But the mean-spirited proceeding of
Lord Kenmare excited much indignation
amongst the Catholics then in Dublin.
They did not indeed hope much from tlie
ConA'ention ; but at least they' Avould not
permit his lordship to disavoAv in their
name every manly aspiration. Accord-
ingly', in the afternoon of the same day
the princely' demagogue, the Earl-Bishop
of Derry', rose to submit to the considera-

* Mr. Plowden speaks of this as a “ pretended
letter of Lord Kenmare.”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

153

tion of the Convention “ a paper of con-
sequence, which referred to a class of men
A\’ho were deserving of every privilege in
common with their fellow-countrymen.”
He moved that the paper should be read.
It was to this effect : “Nov. 14th, 1783—
At a meeting of the General Committee
of the Homan Catholics of Ireland, Sir
Patrick Bellew, Bart., in the chair, it was
unanimously Resolved, That the message
relating to us delivered this morning to
the National Convention was totally un-
known to and unauthorised by us. That
we do not so widely differ from the rest of
mankind, as, by our own act, to prevent
the removal of our shackles. That we
shall receive with gratitude every indul-
gence that may be extended to us by the
legislature, and are thankful to our bene-
volent countrymen for their generous
efforts on our behalf. Resolved, That Sir
r. Bellew be requested to present the
foregoing resolutions to the Earl of Bristol
as the act of the Roman Catholics of Ire-
land, and entreat that his lordship will
be pleased to communicate them to the
National Convention.” There were few
more remarkable men in Ireland in that
age of able men than this singular Bisliop
of Derry. He was a steady friend to the
Catholics, and supported every movement
in their favour, when Charlemont and
Flood coldly repulsed and resisted every
suggestion of this kind. One cannot but
wish that the bold bishop had been com-
mander-in-chief of the Volunteers.

A newly elected Parliament had met a
few days before this Convention ; and
Dublin then presented the extraordinary'
spectacle of two deliberative bodies, seated
in two houses, within sight of each other,
treating of the same questions, and com-
posed in part of the same persons ; for
many members both of the Lords and
Commons were also members of the Con-
vention ; and they passed from one build-
ing to the other, as debates of importance
were to arise in either. The year Avhich
was drawing to a close had been a very
busy and stirring one in Ireland. The
British ministry was that famous “ coali-
tion ministry” formed by Lord North and
Mr Fox : the Irish Judicature Bill, one of
the series of measures for establishing the
independence of Ireland, had been passed
by the English Parliament.* Lord Temple

* It is the act 23 George III., c. 28, entitled, “ An
Act for preventing and removing all doubts which
have arisen, or may arise, concerning the exclusive
rights of the Parliament and courts of Ireland, in
matters of legislation and judicature; and for pre-
venting any writ of error or appeal from any of his
majesty’s courts in that kingdom from being re-
ceived. heard, and adjudged, in any of his majesty’s
courts iu the kingdom of Great Britain.”

had succeeded the Duke of Portland as
lord-lieutenant ; and in his viceroyalty, it
was judged advisable to amuse the Irish,
with a btiuble “ to draw away the public
mind,” says Mr. Plowden, “ from specu-
lative questions,” especially reform : and
accordingly letters patent were issued
creating the order of “ Knights of St.
Patrick ; ” and the new knights were in-
stalled Avith great pomp on the 17th of
March, the festival of the saint. Lord
Temple’s government lasted but a feAv
months, he was succeeded by Lord North-
ington Avho dissolved the Parliament ; and
a general election had now resulted in the-
House of Commons which was already in
session in College Green, when the Con-
vention of Volunteers, after first meeting
in the Royal Exchange, transferred their
meeting to the upper end of Sackville
Street. The Convention and the Parlia-
ment stood in a very singular relation:
the main object of the one was to reform
and to purge the other. Certainly Parlia-
ment greatly needed to be reformed and
purged ; but Avhen the medicine was offered
at the sword’s point, by a body clearly
extra-legal and unconstitutional, it Avas
not very likely that they Avould sAvalloAV
it. The House of Commons Avas not only
thorougly A'icious in its constitution,
being composed chiefly of nominees of
great proprietors, but also systematically
corrupted by bribes, places, and promises
for it Avas noAV more essential to English

Among.st the several acts which received the royal
assent under tlie Duke of Portland’s administration,
Avas Mr. Eden’s act for establishing the national
bank. This met with some opposition, but the
measure Avas carried, and the bank opened the year
folloAving. By this act (21 and 22 Geo. III., c. 16),
the Bank Avas established by the name of The
Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland.
The sub.scribers to it Avere to pay in £600,000, eithe
in cash or debentures, at 4 per cent., Avhich Avere tO'
be taken at par, and considered as money. Thi.s
sum Avas to be the capital stock of the bank, and the
debentures to tliat amount, Avhen receiA'ed, Avere to
be cancelled by the A'ice-treasurers. For these an
annuity of £24,000 Avas to be paid to the company,
being equal to the interest payable upon these
debentures ; the stock Avas to be redeemable at any
time, upon tAvelve months’ notice, after the 1st of
January, 1794. Ireland obtained likeAvise an im-
portant acquisition by a bill, “for better securing-
the liberty of the subject,” otherAAUse called the
Habeas Corpus act, similar to that formerly passed
in England.

The sacramental test, by which the dissenting
Protestants were excluded from offices of trust under
the croAvn, Avas also repealed, and the nation Avas
gratified by the repeal of the perpetual mutiny biU,
and by that long-desired act for making the com-
mission of the judges of that kingdom, to continue
quamdiu se bene gesserint. An act Avas also passed
to render the manner of conforming from the Popish
to the Protestant religion more easy and expeditious.
Another for sparing to his majesty, to be draAAm out
of this kingdom Avhenever he should think tit, a
force not exceeding 50,000 men. Part of the troops
appointed to be kept therein for its defence.

154

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

policy than ever to ‘‘ secure a parliamen-
tary majority ” upon all questions. Such
a Parliament, of which two-thirds were
already placemen, pensioners, or recipi-
ents of secret service-money or else ex-
pected soon to be in one of those categories,
could not long subsist by the side of a
dictatorial Convention of armed men,
which really represented the armed force
of the nation, and Avhich called upon it to
come out from the slough of all that pro-
fitable corruption. One or the other Par-
liament or Convention, it was plain would
have to give way.

When the excitement which folloAved
Lord Kenmare’s singular dilavowal of
manhood had subsided, there was not
much further reference to Catholics or
their claims ; the Convention resolved
itself into committees, and appointed sub-
committees, to prepare plans of parlia-
mentary reform, for the consideration of
the general body. “ Then was displayed
a singular scene, and yet such a scene as
any one, avIio considered the almost un-
varying disposition of an assembly of that
nature, and the particular object for which
it was convened, might justly have ex-
pected. From every quarter, and from
every speculatist, great clerks or no clerks
at all, was poured in such a multiplicity
of plans of reform, some of them ingeni-
ous, some which bespoke an exercised and
rational mind, but in general so utterly
impracticable, ‘ so rugged and so wild in
their attire, they looked not like the off-
spring of inhabitants of the earth and yet
A\ ei’e on it,’ that language would sink in
portraying this motley band of incon-
gruous fancies, of misshapen theories,
valuable only if ineflicient, or execrable if
efficacious.” *

But the plan which after some weeks of
discussion Avas eA'entually adopted, AA^as
the Avorkmanship of the ablest head in the
assembly. Flood had assumed, because
he Avas able to grasp and resolute to main-
tain, a predominating superiority OA^er the
Convention. It Avas the ascendancy of a
vigorous eloquence, a commanding pre-
sence, and a resistless Avill. With him in
all his vieAvs, and beyond him in many,
Avas the Bishop of Berry. The plan of
reform Avhich these two men approved f

* Hardy’s Life of Charlemont. Hardy was one of
Lord Charlemont’s coterie, and looked at men and
things through the medium of Marino. His maiden
speech was made in support of Flood's plan of
reform, brought up from the Convention. It should
not be forgotten that Hardy — though poor, he was
incorruptible — scorned the large offers which were
made to him at the Union. He was a patriot not to
be purchased, when corruption was most munifi-
cent.

t The bishop would have included the Catholics.

Avas adopted, and Flood was selected to
introduce a bill founded on its principles
and suggestions into Parliament. They
imagined that they could terrify the legis-
lature, and they much miscalculated the
poAver of the Volunteers. That power
Avas already shaken ; they had flung aAvay
the sympathies of the people ; they had
by their conduct deflned themseh^es as
an armed oligarchy, AAdiose limited no-
tions of freedom extended no farther
than their own privileges and claims ;
they Avere abhorred and feared by
Government and its parliamentary re-
tainers ; they Avere not trusted by
the great body of the nation. It Avas
under unfortunate auspices like these, in
the midst of bitter hostility and more
dangerous indifference, that Flood, leav-
ing the Botunda, proceeded on the 29th
of December to the House of Commons
Avith a bill, every provision of Avhich Avas
aimed at the parliamentary existence of
tAvo-thirds of the House. He had re-
quested the delegates not to adjourn till
its fate Avas ascertained. But fatigue and
disappointment rendered compliance im-
possible.

Flood’s plan embraced many of the
principles Avhich have since become incor-
porated AAuth the British constitution —
the destruction of borough influence, and
the creation of a sound county franchise.*
There Avas nothing re\'olutionary — no-
thing of that spirit to Avhich modern
usages giA'e the name of radical, in its
principles and details. It AA^as only defec-
tiA^e in its grand omission. The Catholics
obtained no boon, and acquired no liberty
by its proAusions, and to its fate in the
legislature they Avere naturally indifferent.
We have objected to Grattan that he did
not go on Avith the popular moA'ement — it
may Avith equal justice be alleged against
Lord Charlemont and Flood, that by their
religious intolerance they impaired the

* ScnEJiE OF Reforaf. — “That every RrOtestant
fi-eeholder or leaseholder, possessing a freehold or
leasehold for a certain term of years of forty shil-
lings value, resident in any city or borough, should
be entitled to A'ote at the election of a member for
the same.

“ That decayed boroughs should be entitled to re-
turn representatives by an extension of franchise to
the neighbouring parishes. That suffrages of the
electors should be taken by the sheriff or his depu-
ties, on the same day, at the respective places of
election. That pensioners of the crown receiA’ing
their pensions during pleasure, should be incapaci-
tated from sitting in Parliament. That every mem-
ber of Parliament accepting a pension for life, or any
place under the crown, should vacate his seat. That
each member should subscribe an oath that he had
neither directly nor indirectly given any pecuniary
or other consideration with a view of obtaining that
suffrage of an election. Finally, that the duration
of Parliament ahould not exceed the term of tlurea
years.”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

155

Strength of popular opinion and marred
the efficacy of all their previous proceed-
ings.

The debate consequent on Flood’s mo-
tion for leave to bring in his Reform Bill,
-svas bitter and stormy. The whole array of
placemen, pensioners, and nominees were
in arms against the bill — they could not
disgnise their rage and amazement— but
vented their wrath against the Volunteers
in furious terms. And Yelverton, who
combined an unmeasured regard for self-
interest Avith a cautious and measured
love of liberty, and who had been a
Volunteer, denounced the idea of a bill
introduced into Parliament at the point
of the bayonet.

“ If this, as it is notorious it does, ori-
ginates from an armed body of men, I
reject it. Shall Ave sit here to be dictated
to at the point of the bayonet ? I honour
the Volunteers; they have eminently
served their country ; but Avhen they turn
into a debating society to reform the
Parliament and regulate the nation —
Avhen, Avith-the rude point of the bayonet,
they Avould probe the Avounds of the con-
stitution that require the most skilful
hand and delicate instrument, it reduces
the question to this — Is the CoiiA^ention
or the Parliament of Ireland to deliberate
on the affairs of the nation ? What have
Ave lately seen ? — even during the sitting
of Parliament, and in the metropolis of
the kingdom, armed men lining the
streets for armed men going in fastidious
shoAv to that pantheon of divinities, the
Rotunda, and there sitting in all the
parade and in the mockery of Parlia-
ment! Shall Ave submit to this?

“ I ask every man avIio regards that
free constitution established by the blood
of our fathers, is such an infringement
upon it to be suffered ? If it is, and one
step more is advanced, it Avill be too late
to retreat. If you have slept, it is high
time to awake.”

This Avas the logic of an attorney-
'general, avIio never deals a harder bloAv to
liberty than AA'hen he professes himself
her most obedient serv^ant. But this
transparent hypocrisy Avas rudely dealt
Avith by Flood —

“ I have not introduced the Volunteers,
but if they are aspersed, I Avill defend
their character against all the AA’orld. By
Avhom Avere the commerce and the consti-
tution of this country recovered ?— By the
Volunteers.

“ Why did not the right honourable
gentlemen make a declaration against
them Avhen they lined our streets — Avhen
Parliament passed through the ranks of
those virtuous armed men to demand the I

rights of an insulted nation ? Are they
different men at this day, or is the right
honourable gentlemen different ? He Avas
then one of their body ; he is now their
accuser ! He, Avho saAv the streets lined —
Avho rejoiced — Avho partook in their glory,
in noiu their accuser ! Are they less Avise,
less braA'e, less ardent in their country’s
cause, or has their admirable conduct
made him their enemy ? May they not
say, we have not changed, but you have
changed. The right honourable gentle-
man cannot bear to hear of Volunteers ,
but I Avill ask him, and I Avill have a
STARI^XG TAUGHT TO HOLLO IX HIS EAR —

Who gave you free trade ? avIio got you
the free constitution ? Avho made you a
nation ? — The Volunteers

“If they Avere the men you noAv describe
them, Avhy did you accept of their ser-
vice, AAdiy did you not then accuse them ?
If they Avere so dangerous aa'Ii}" did you pass
through their ranks Avith your Speaker
at your head to demand a constitution —
Avhy did you not then fear the ills }'ou noAv
apprehend ?”

Grattan supported the Bill. He said he
loved to blend the idea of Parliment and
the Volunteers. They had concurred in
establishing the constitution in the last
Parliament ; he hoped that they Avould
do it in the present. But altogether it
must be said that his support Avas feeble —
it Avanted heart, it Avanted the fire, the
inspiration, the genius Avhich carried the
Declaration of Rights Avith triumph
through that ineffably corrupt assembly.
And yet reform Avas the only security for
his oAAui Avork — it Avould have rendered
the constitution immortal, and erected an
enduring memorial of his glory.f

* Declaration of the Volunteer army of Ulster,

“ That the dignified conduct of the army lately re-
stored to the imperial croAvn of Ireland its original
splendour — to nobility its ancient privileges — and
to the nation at large its inherent rights as a sove-
reign independent state.” Such was the assumed
power of the Volunteers in 1782. The Parliament
was considered then almost anti-national.

t “ It Avas proposed by GoAmrnment to meet this
question in the most decided manner, and to bring
to issue the contest betAveen the GoA'ernment and
this motley assembly usurping its rights. This idea
met Avith A^ery considerable support. A great
heartiness shoAved itself among the principal men
of consequence and fortune, and a decided spirit of
opposition to the unreasonable encroachments ap-
peared Avith every man attached to the Administra-
tion. The idea stated was to oppose the leace to
bring in a bill for the reform of Parliament in the
first stage, on the ground of the petition originating
in an assembly unconstitutional and illegal, and
meant to aAve and control the legislature. This
bold mode of treating it Avas certainly most proper ;
at the same time it Avas subject to the defections of
those Avho had been instructed on this idea of re-
form, and those Avho Avere still anxious to retain a
small degree of popularity amongst the Volunteers.
To liave put it Avith a resolution Avould have given

156

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

But if Grattan lacked his ancient fire,
the opposition which was given by the
vile brood of faction was not deficient in
spirit ; it was furious and fierce. The
coarsest invectives and the vulgarest
ribaldry w^ere heaped upon the Volunteers
—the question of rarliamentary Reform
was lost sight of in the rancorous malig-
nity of the hour, and the debate became a
chaos of vituperation, misrepresentation,
and personality. At length the question
Avas put, and Flood’s motion wms lost.
The numbers Avere, for the motion 77,
against it 157. After the result had been
ascertained, it Avas thought fit by the
attorney-general (Yeh^erton) to move,
“That R" has noAV become indispensably
necessary to declare that the House Avill
maintain its just rights and privileges
against all encroachments AAdiatsoever.”
This Avas a declaration of Avar, less
against Reform, than against the Volun-
teers. The gauntlet Avas throAvn down to
them— did they dare to take it up ?

For aAvhile the Com^ention aAvaited a
message from the Commons— but no mes-
sage of triumph came to croAvn their
hopes. The scene Avas embarrassing-
lassitude had succeeded excitement —
silence crept sloAvly on the noisy antici-
pations of victory. At last, adjournment
Avas suggested— the dramatic effect Avas
lost, the dramatic spirit had passed aAvay.
The Convention broke up, to aAvait, Avith-
out the theatric pomp of full assembly, the
details of discomfiture, insult, and defeat.

The interval Avas Avell used by those
Avho secretly trembled at the issue of a
direct collision betAveen GoA'ernment and
the Volunteers, or avIio had not the bold-
ness to guide the storm Avhich they had
had the temerity to raise. Rumours there
AA'ere of secret conclaAms, Avhere coAA’ardly
counsels took the place of manly foresight
and sagacious boldness — of discussions
with closed doors, Avhere the men Avho
had led the national army in the AA*hole
campaign of freedom canAmssed the pro-
priety of sacrificing to their OAvn fears
that body Avhose virtue and renoAvn had
conferred on them a reflected glory;*
us at least fourteen votes. Grattan, having pledged
himself to the idea of reform of Parliament, could
not see the distinction between the refusal of leave
on the ground of its having come from an excep-
tionable body, and the absolute denial of receiving
anv plan of reform. He voted against us, and
spoke; but his speech evidently showed that he meant
us no harm, and on the question of the resolution to
support Parliament he voted with us. The resolu-
tions are gone to the Lords, who Avill concur in
them, except, it is said. Lord Mountmorris, Lord
Aldborough, and Lord Charlemont.”— Letter of the
Lord-Lieutenant to Charles James Fox, 30th Nov.,
1783.

* Barrington’s Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation,
c. 10, p. 377.

Avhilst some writers have represented the
adjournment of the Convention, and the
extinction of the Volunteers, or, as it Avas
called by Grattan, “ their retirement to
cultiA'ate the blessings of peace,” as the
just and natural issue to their useful and
brilliant career.* As Avell might it be
said that the Union aa’us the just and
natural result of the constitution of 1782.
And they Avho abandoned the Volunteers,
and alloAved their organisation to crumble
and decline, are answerable to their coun-
try for the consequences of that fatal
measure of political tergiversation. A
large meeting of “particular friends” as-
sembled at Lord Charlemont’s on the Sun-
day.! It ■'^ds unanimously agreed that
the public peace — Avhich did not appear in
any particular danger at the time— Avas
the first object to be considered. It is to
be regretted that Hardy is not more ex-
plicit on the subject of this meeting. It
Avould have been fortunate had he in-
formed us Avho Avere the parties con-
cerned in this transaction ; for it might
have furnished a key to the subsequent
conduct of many men, Avhose proceedings
Avere considered inexplicable at the time.
The result of their deliberations AA'as im-
portant. Tlie Volunteers Avere to receive
their rebuff quietly ; they Avere to sepa-
rate in peace and good-Avill to all men ;
meekly to digest the contumelies of the
GoA'ernment retainers ; and, folloAving the
advice of some of their officers, to hang
up tlieir arms in the Temple of Liberty.
Tlie advice Avas good, if the temple had
been built.

On IVIonday the 1st of December, the
CouA'ention met. Captain Moore, one of
the delegates, Avas about to comment on
the reception of their Reform Bill by Par-
liament, Avhen Lord Charlemont called
him to order. Upon Avhich, in a very
dignified Avay, Henry Flood detailed the
insulting reception of their bill by the legis-
lature ; and Avell aAvare of the temper of
some of the most influential men in the
ConA'ention, he counselled moderation.
But Avhat other policy than submission
Avas on their cards ? They had put them-
seh'es in antagonism to Parliament — they
had been treated Avith contempt and de-
fiance— their plan had not been even dis-
cussed, but contumeliously rejected be-
cause it Avas the suggestion of men AAuth
arms in their hands — arms which they dared
not use. There Avere only tAvo courses open
— Avar or submission. They adopted the
latter course, not AA'ithout some rebellious
pride, and a flush of the old spirit that had
burned so brightly at Dungannon.

* Gr.Attan’s Life by Henry Grattan, c. 5.

t Hardy's Life of Charlemont, vol. ii., p. 138.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

157

Looking back over these events, one
■cannot resist the conclusion that if the
Convention had generously and at once
thrown open the door of the Constitution
to the Catholics, Lord Charlemont might
at this juncture have marched down to
that den of corruption in College Green,
cleared it out, locked the door, and there-
after dictated his Keform Bill by way of
general orders : but Charlemont was not
the man to strike such a blow ; and be-
sides, he and the Convention had alienated,
or, at least, left in a state of indifference,
the great body of the nation which would
else have borne them triumphantly to the
goal of perfect and permanent freedom.

The Convention adjourned, to meet
next day. Mr. Flood moved a tame ad-
dress to the House, declaring that seeking
parliamentary reform “ was not to be
imputed to any spirit of innovation in
them.” They adjourned again ; but next
morning Lord Charlemont repaired some-
what earlier than usual to the Rotunda,
with several of his friends, and, after
■some formal resolutions, pronounced the
Convention dissolved. “ From this
time,” says Dr. Madden, “ the power
of the Volunteers was broken.” The
Government resolved to let the institution
die a natural death ; at least, to aim no
blow at it in public ; but wdien it is
known that the Hon. Col. Robert Stewart
(father of Lord Castlereagh) was not only
a member of the Convention — a delegate
from the County Down— but chairman of
a sub-committee, and that he was the
intimate friend of Lord Charlemont, the
nature of the hostility that Government
put in practice against the institution will
be easily understood. While the Volun-
teers were parading before Lord Charle-
mont, or manifesting their patriotism in
declarations of resistance to the Parlia-
ment, perfidy was stalking in their camp,
and it rested not till it had trampled on
the ashes of their institution.

The Volunteers through the country
received the accounts of their delegates
with indignant amazement. They beat to
arms — they met — and resolved. But the
binding principle was relaxed ; doubt,
suspicion, and alarm pervaded the ranks
that had been so firmly knit ; their reso-
lutions, though still warmed with the
spirit of fiery eloquence, Avere but sound-
ing words, unheeded by a government
which had planted too securely the seeds
of disunion, to fear the threats of men
without leaders, without mutual confi-
dence, wdthout reliance on themselves.
The Bishop of Derry became their idol ;
but it was beyond his pow’er to restore
them to their commanding j)osition.

Flood had gone to England, either fired
with new ambition, or in despair of effect-
ing his great objects at home. The bishop
was a bad adviser, too bold and unguarded,
and the Government, amazed at an extra-
ordinary reply Avhich he gave to an ad-
dress of the Bill of Rights’ Battalion, a
northern corps, seriously canvassed the
propriety of his arrest. Ilis reply con-
cluded with a memorable political aphor-
ism, “ Tyranny is not government, and
allegiance is due only to protection.”
But he was not prosecuted, nor arrested.
It Avould have been a rash— it was a use-
less step. The natural progress of events
effected what a measure of severity w^ould
probably have retarded, or rendered im-
possible— the destruction of the Volun-
teers. Division of opinion gained ground
amongst them, yet they continued their
reviews, they published their proceedings,
they passed their resolutions. But, month
by month, and year by year, their num-
bers diminished, their military gatherings
became less splendid, their exposition of
political opinion Avas less regarded by the
nation, or feared by the Government.

The Reform Bill presented b}'- the Con-
vention having failed. Flood, after his re-
turn from England, determined to test the
sincerity of the Parliament in the alleged
cause of its rejection. The legislature de-
clared that they had spurned the bill be-
cause it emanated from a military body.
In March, 1784, he introduced another
measure of parliamentary reform, backed
by numerous petitions from the counties.
Tlie bill was read a second time, but was
rejected, on the motion for its committal,
by a majority of seventy-four. Grattan
gave a cold support. It became now clear
that the opposition Avas given to reform,
not because it w^as the demand of a mili-
tary body, but because the principle Avas
odious to a corrupt Parliament. A meet-
ing of the representatives of thirty-one
corps took place at Belfast to make pre-
parations for a review, and they adopted
a resolution that tliey would not associate
Avith any regiment at the ensuing demon-
stration Avhich should continue under the
command of officers Avho opposed parlia-
mentary reform.* However natural was
their indignation at the coolness of some,
and the hostility of other professing Pa-
triots to the great measure of constitu-
tional change, the effect of this resolution
was unfortunate. It yielded a plausible
excuse to many of the officers to secede
from the Volunteer body ; it Avorked out
Avonderfully the policy of division Avhich
Government was in CA^ery Avay pursuing ;
it defined the distinctions Avhich existed
* Historical Collections relative to Belfast, p. 200.

158

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

in the Volunteer associations, and 'widened
the fatal breach.

We may here anticipate a little in order
to close the story of the Volunteers. The
rejection of the Eeforin Bill was followed
by an attempt to get up a national Con-
gress by Blood. Vapper Tandy, and others.
They addressed requisitions to the sheritfs
of the counties, calling on them to summon
their bailiwicks for the purpose of electing
rej^resentatives. Some few complied with
the requisition ; most of them refused. The
' attorney-general (Fitzgibbon) threatened
to proceed by attachment against those
who had obeyed the mandate, and by a
mixture of personal daring and ability
succeeded in preventing ]NIr. Keill}', the
sheriff of Dublin, from taking the chair
of an intended electoral meeting. Dele-
gates were, however, selected in some
quarters, and in October a few indivi-
duals assembled in William Street to hold
the Congress. The debate was Avith closed
doors ; the Bishop of Derry was not pre-
sent ; Flood attended, and detailed his
plan of reform, in Avhich the Catholics
Avere not included. The omission gave
offence to the Congress, and Flood, indig-
nant at the Avant of support, retired. After
three days’ sitting, the Congress ad-
journed. It A'anished as if it Avere the
melancholy ghost of the Xatioual Con-
A'ention.

These proceedings were alluded to in
the speech Avhich opened the session, J anu-
ary, 1785. They Avere characterised as

laAvless outrages and unconstitutional
proceedings.” The address in reply ap-
plied the same terms to the transactions
in connection with theXational Congress;
and this drcAv from Grattan a memorable
speech, and one Avhich, Avith reference to
the Volunteers, is historic. It marks the
transition-point when the old Volunteers
ceased, and a neAv body, composed of a
different class of men, and ruled by poli-
ticians Avith very different vieAvs, com-
menced a career Avhich terminated only in
the establishment of the United Irishmen.
Grattan, in the debate on the address,
after defending the reform party and
principles generally from the attacks con-
tained in the viceroy’s speech, said,* ”I
Avould noAV Avish to draAV the attention of
the House to the alarming measure of
drilling theloAvest classes of the populace,
by Avhich a stain had been put on the
character of the Volunteers, The old, the
original Volunteers, had become respec-
table because they represented the pro-
perty of the nation , but attempts had
been made to arm the poverty of the king-
dom, They had originally been the armed
* Grattan’s Speeches, a'oI. L, p. i’12.

property ; Avere they to become the. armed
beggary -r' To the Congress, to the part-
ies AA'ho had presented petitions for re-
form, he addressed indignant reproof.
They had, he said, been guilty of the
Avildest indiscretion ; they had gone much
too far, and, if they Avent on, they Avould
overturn the laws of their country.

It Avas an unfortunate period for the
interests of Irish liberty Avhich Grattan
selected thus to dissever the ties betAveen
the V olunteers and him. They had begun
to perceDe that, Avithout the co-operation
of the Catholics, it Avould be unreasonable
to expect to obtain a reformed Parlia-
ment independent of England. The men
of the Ulster Plantation were the first to
recognise and act upon this obAuous truth.
They carried their toleration so far as to
march to the chapel and to attend mass.
Had proper advantage been taken of these
dispositions of the people, the result would
haA'e been the acquisition of a measure of
parliamentary reform Avhich would have
insured the stability of the settlement of
1782. But they Avere left Avithout guides
when most a ruling mind Avas required ;
nor is it surprising that ulterior aucavs be-
gan to influence the ardent temperament,
and to excite the angry passions of a dis-
appointed people. But these considera-
tions belong to the history of a later
period, when the Volunteers had merged
into that great and Avonderful confederacy
Avhich Avithin a few years threatened the
stability of the English dominion in Ire-
land.

Tlie regular army had been increased
to fifteen thousand men, Avith the appro-
bation of the most distinguished founders
of the constitution of 1782 ; the next act
of hostility Avas one in Avhich Gardiner,
Avho had been an acth^e officer in the
Volunteers, took the leading part. On
the llth of February, 1785, he moA’ed that
.£20,000 be granted to his majesty for the
purpose of clothing the militia. This Avas
intended to be a fatal bloAv. It Avas aimed
by a treacherous hand. The motion Avas
supported by Langrishe, Denis Daily,
Arthur Wolfe, and Grattan, Fitzgibbon
assailed the Volunteers AA-ith official bit-
terness. He reiterated the charges of
Grattan that they had admitted into their
ranks a Ioav description of men ; their
constitution Avas changed ; they had de-
generated into practices inimical to the
peace of the country. They Avere. hoAv-
eA’er, not left undefended. Curran, Hardy,
and XeAvenham stepped forAvard to their
vindication. These men pointed out the
benefits of the institution — the Volunteers
in time of Avar had protected the country,
and preserA'ed internal quiet — no militia

niSTOnr OF IRELAND,

159

■was then needed — why -was it required in
peace? The proposition -was a censure
on the Volunteers.

Grattan replied : — “ The Volunteers had
no right whatsoever to be displeased at the
establishment of a militia ; and if they
had expressed displeasure, the dictate of
armed men ought to be disregarded by
Parliament.

“ The right honourable member had in-
troduced the resolution upon the most
constitutional ground. To establish a
militia — he could not see how that affected
the Volunteers ; and it would be a hard
case indeed, if members of Parliament
should be afraid to urge such measures as
they deemed proper, for fear of giving
offence to the Volunteers. The situation
of the House would bo truly unfortunate
if the name of the Volunteers could in-
timidate it. I am ready to allow that the
great and honourable body of men — the
primitive Volunteers, deserved much of
their country ; but I am free to say, that
they who noAv assume the name have
much degenerated. It is said that they
rescued the constitution, that they forced
Parliament to assert its rights, and there-
fore Parliament should surrender the con-
stitution into their hands. But it is a
mistake to say they forced Parliament :
they stood at the back of Parliament, and
supported its authority ; and Avhen they
thus acted Avith Parliament, they acted to
their OAvn glory ; but Avhen they attempted
to dictate, they became nothing. When
Parliament repelled the mandate of the
Convention, they went back, and they
acted Avith propriety ; and it Avill ever
happen so AA'hen Parliament has spirit to
assert its OAvn authority.

“ Gentlemen are mistaken if they ima-
gine that the Volunteers are the same as
they formerly Avere, when they committed
themselves in support of the state, and
the exclusive authority of the Parliameut
of Ireland, at the Dungannon meeting.
The resolutions published of late hold
forth a very different language.

“ Gentlemen talk of ingratitude. I can-
not see hoAV voting a militia for the de-
fence of the country is ingratitude to the
Volunteers. The House has been very
far from ungrateful to them. While
they acted Avith Parliament, Parliameut
thanked and applauded them ; but in
attempting to act against Parliament,
they lost their consequence. Ungrateful !
Where is the instance ? It cannot be
meant, that because the House rejected
the mandate which vile incendiaries had
urged the Convention to issue ; because,
when such a wound Avas threatened to the
constitution, the House declared that it

was necessary to maintain the authority
of Parliament, that therefore the House
Avas ungrateful I ”

The Volunteers lingered some years
after this. They held annual revieAvs —
they passed addresses and resolutions —
but, henceforward, their proceedings Avere
Avuthout effect. The details of their decay
do not belong to the history of the Volun-
teers of 1782. That body practically
expired Avith the Convention of Dublin.
Their old leaders fell aAvay — the men of
Avealth abandoned them, and neAv men —
men, not Avithout generous qualities and
high ambition, but Avith perilous and re-
volutionary views — succeeded to the con-
trol. And Avhen, at length, the Volunteers
having come in direct collision Avith the
regular army, and Avisely declined the
contest, the Government issued its man-
date, that every assemblage of the body
should be dispersed by force, even the
phantom of the army of Ireland had
passed aAvay from the scene for ever.*

CHAPTER XXII.

1784— 178G.

Improvement of the country. — Political position
anomalous. — Rutland, viceroy. — Petitions for Par-
liamentary Reform. — Flood’s motion. — Rejected.
— Grattan’s bill to regulate the revenue. — Protec-
tive duties demanded. — National Congress. — Dis-
sensions as to riglits of Catholics. — Charlemont’s
intolerance. — Orde’s Commercial Propositions. —
New propositions of Mr. Pitt. — Burke and Sheri-
dan.— Commercial propositions defeated. — Mr.
Conolly. — The national debt. — General corruption.
—Court majorities. — Patriots defeated. — Ireland
after hve years of independence.

Ireland Avas uoav in many respects an
independent nation. Enjoying for the first
time in her history an unrestricted trade,
a sovereign judiciary, the AA'rit of Habeas
Corpus, and a Parliament acknoAvledged
to be the sovereign legislature, free from
the dictation of an English privy council,
the country did certainly begin almost
immediately to make a rapid advance in
material prosperity. Many absentees re-
turned and spent their incomes at home ;
the revival of other branches of industry
retrieved in some degree the unAvholesome
competition for farms, Avdiich had left the
unfortunate and friendless peasantry at
the absolute mercy of their landlords.

* A few country coi-ps had fixed upon holding a
review at Doah, in the county of Antrim. The
arm>’ marched to the spot to disperse them ; br^
the Volunteers avoided assembling, and thus gave
up the ghost.— Dr. MacNeviu’s Pieces of Irish
History, p. 58.

160

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Besides all this, the very proud feeling
■of national independence seems to have
kindled a sort of vital energy throughout
the farthest extremities of the land. On
the vliole, although there was still much
distress among the poor, and appeals to
Parliament for their relief, there was soon
visible a dawn of prosperity in Ireland.

Yet the political situation was evidently
anomalous and insecure. Ireland had not,
like England, a responsible body of cabi-
net ministers accountable to her own Par-
liament. The lord-lieutenant and Irish
■secretary ruled as before ; and although
they were appointed, it was said, by the
King of Ireland, they really held their
otSces and received their instructions from
the ministers of England ; and their whole
care was expected to be, and was, in fact,
to maintain by every possible means the
paramount ascendency of that more
powerful kingdom. This could only be
accomplished by the creation of more and
more places, the still' greater extension of
the pension list, and more direct and
shameless bribery. In short, we shall
soon see that organised corruption de-
veloped itself during the era of “ inde-
pendence” with more deadly power than
ever before, until it swelled at last to that
deluge of corruption, that perfect par-
oxysm of plunder, which bore down every-
thing before it at the era of the “ Union.”

Lord Northington, on a change of mini-
stry in England, resigned his viceroyalty
on the 7th of January, 1781; and on the
24th of February was succeeded by the
Duke of Ilutland. Just before this change,
the revenue of Ireland being again, as
usual, inadequate to the expenditure,
£300,000 was ordered to be borrowed to
meet the deficiency.

On the 26th of February Parliament
met. Mr. Gardiner moved the address to
the Duke of Rutland ; and then there
came pouring into the House thirteen
petitions for a “ Reform in Parliament.”
It was on this measure the people’s minds
were now chiefly bent. They were irri-
tated and disappointed at the manner in
Avhich the House of Commons had flung
out the Reform bill introduced b}^ Mr.
Flood in the name of the Volunteer Con-
vention. They began to perceive that
with a Parliament so constituted Ireland
could not really be said to control her own
destinies ; and they did not yet sufficiently
comprehend that for this precise reason
England would always steadily oppose all
reform — and Avould be able to oppose it
with success because the very corruption
of Parliament which was an injury and
scandal to Ireland was the great arm and
agent of British domination here.

It was now on the 13th of March that
Mr. Flood made his renewed motion for a
parliamentary reform ; not now as a mem-
ber of the dictatorial Volunteer Conven-
tion, but as an individual member. A
few sentences of his speech may be given
to show the notoriety of the rotten borough
system ; and how audaciously it was de-
fended as a right of property. He ad-
mitted it would be thought by certain
gentlemen injurious to their private inter-
est, if the constitution were restored to
its original security ; but they must also
admit, that it was contrary to every prin-
ciple of right and justice that individuals
should be permitted to send into that
house, two, four, or six members of
Parliament, to make a traffic of venal
boroughs, as if they were household
utensils. It seemed a point agreed upon
in England, that a parliamentary re-
form was necessary ; he should mention,
he said, the opinion given by Lord Chat-
ham, upon Avhose posthumous fame the
present administration so firmly stood
defended by the nation, though that
great and illustrious man had been ne-
glected for ten years by the public, and so
large a portion of his valuable life was
suffered to be lost to the community.
What were his sentiments on that import-
ant matter? His words most strongly
enforced its necessity, in his answer to the
address of the city of London, in which
he said that a reform in Parliament was
absolutely necessary in order to infuse
fresh vigour into the constitution, and
that rotten boroughs ought to be stricken
off.”

This measure, opening the franchise to
Protestant freeholders, was by several
members opposed as being oppressive to
the Catholics. Sir Boyle Roche, the very
man who had but lately hurried to the
Convention to carry Lord Kenmare’s slav-
ish, self-denying message, refusing all
electoral rights for the Catholics — this
Sir Boyle, only anxious to defeat the
reform "by any means, used this argument
against it : —

Sir Boyle Roche said the design of the
bill was to transfer the franchise of elec-
tion from the feAv to the many ; or, in
other words, to deprive the present pos-
sessors of the patronage of boroughs, and
give it to another set of men ; while they
were endeavouring to gratify one set of
men, they should not act as tyrants to
another. This bill would be a proscrip-
tive act against the Roman Catholics, who
would be all turned out of their farms to
make room for forty-shilling freeholders.
There was an animated debate, but its
issue could not be one moment doubtful

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

161

at the Castle. At four o’clock on Sunday
morning, the division took place — ayes,
85 ; noes, 159. It was clear that the Go-
vernment had still its steady-working
majority in that corrupt assembly on all
questions which were not left open ques-
tions, and that there was no measure so
little likely to be left an open question as
parliamentary reform.

Two other subjects of great national im-
portance were brought before Parliament
in this session — a bill for regulation of the
revenue by Mr. Grattan, and a bill to lay
protective duties on the importation of
manufactured goods. This latter measure
seems to have been greatly needed ; and
the anxiety of the public for its success is
a still further proof of the real meaning
which in the Volunteering times Avas at-
tached to the cry, “ Tree trade, or else

that is to say, freedom for the

legislature of Ireland to regulate, protect,
tax, admit, or prohibit all branches of
Irish trade for Ireland’s OAvn benefit.

In view of the continual rejection of all
projects of reform, it is no wonder that
men’s minds turned away from Parlia-
ment, and that plans of a revolutionary
character began to be agitated. Such was
the idea of a National Congress. The
sheriffs of Dublin were requested to con-
vene a preparatory meeting ; they did so
for the 7th of June, 1784; but as this
project eventuated in nothing important,
we might omit all mention of it, were it
not that the resolutions at this meeting,
Avhile denouncing the venality of Parlia-
ment introduced into their resolutions,
and their addresses to the king, very
strong expressions of their desire to
emancipate the Catholics. In the resolu-
tions we read — “ We call upon you, there-
fore, and thus conjure you, that in this
important work you join with us as fel-
low-subjects, countrymen, and friends, as
men embarked in the general cause, to
remove a general calamity ; and for this
we propose that five persons be elected
from each county, city, and great town in
this kingdom, to meet in National Con-
gress at some convenient place in this
city, on Monday, the 25th day of October
next, there to deliberate, digest, and de-
termine on such measures as may seem to
them most conducive to re-establish the
constitution on a pure and permanent
basis, and secure to the inhabitants of this
kingdom peace, liberty, and safety.

And while we thus contend, as far as
in us lies, for our constitutional rights and
privileges, we recommend to your con-
sideration the state of our suffering fel-
low-subjects, the Eoman Catholics of this
kingdom, whose emancipation from the

restraints under which they still labour,
we consider not only as equitable, but
essentially conducive to the general union
and prosperity of the kingdom.”

And in the address to the king, they
say— “ We farther entreat your majesty’s
permission to condemn that remnant of
the penal code of laws which still op-
presses our Roman Catholic fellow-sub-
jects— laws Avhich tend to prohibit educa-
tion and liberality, restrain certain privi-
leges, and proscribe industry, love of
liberty, and patriotism.”

The very introduction of these liberal
and tolerant ideas into the preliminary
proceedings frightened off the leading
men of the old Volunteers.

In an address presented by the Ulster
corps to the general, the Earl of Charle-
mont, after some strong expressions of
their detestation of aristocratic tyranny,
they hinted at the necessity of calling in
the aid of the Catholics, as the most just
as well as effectual means of opposing it
Avith success. In ansAver to this address,
the Earl of Charlemont lamented that,
for the first time, he felt himself obliged
to differ from them in sentiment. lie Avas
free from every illiberal prejudice against
the Catholics, and full of goodAvill to-
Avards that very respectable body, but he
could not refrain from the most ardent
entreaties, that they Avould desist from a
pursuit that Avould fatally clog and
impede the prosecution of their favourite
purpose.

As this nobleman Avas highly and de-
serA'edly respected, his opinion Avas eagerly
embraced, both by the timid, Avhose ap-
prehensions Avere alarmed at the bold
extent of the jn’oject, and by a great
number Avhose prejudices against the
Catholics appear to have been suspended
from coiiA^eniency or fashion though never
conquered by i)rinciple. In the month of
October, the thanks of the corporation of
the city of Dublin Avere voted him for his
conduct on that occasion.

The meeting of a National Congress
Avas a measure of too alarming a nature
not to attract the most serious attention
of Government ; and it appears to have
been their resolution to take the most
vigorous steps for preventing it if possi-
ble. A feAV days previous to that Avhich
Avas fixed for the election of delegates for
the city of Dublin, the attorney- general
addressed a letter to the sheriffs, expressing
his very great surprise at having read a
summons signed by them calling a meeting
for the purpose in question. Tie observed,
that by this proceeding they had been
guilty of a most outrageous breach of their
duty; and that if they proceeded, tliey

162

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

would be responsible to the laws of their
country, and he should hold himself
bounden to prosecute them in the Court
of King’s Bench, for a conduct, which he
considered so highly criminal, that he
could not overlook it. These threats suc-
ceeded so far as to intimidate the sheriffs
from attending the meeting in their offi-
cial capacity ; but the meeting was never-
theless holden, delegates were chosen ; and
in reference for the attorney’s letter,
several strong resolutions were agreed to,
relative to the right of assembling them-
selves for the redress of grievances.
Government having once set their faces
against the election and assembling of
delegates, from denouncing threats, they
proceeded to punishments.

Mr. liiley, high sheriff for the county
of Dublin, in consequence of his having
called together, and presided at, an as-
sembly of freeholders, who met on the
19th of August, 1784, for the purpose of
choosing and instructing their delegates,
was the first object of ministerial prose-
cution. The attorney-general proceeded
against him by attachment from the
Court of King’s Bench. The assembly,
and the resolutions they came to on that
occasion, signed by Mr. Biley, in his
character of sheriff for the county, were
both declared to be illegal, and Mr. Biley
was sentenced by the court to pay a fine
of five merks (£3 Gs. 8d.), and to be im-
prisoned one week.

This mode of legal process, except for
the purpose of bringing persons before
the court, to receive the sentence of such
court for contempt of, and disobedience to
its orders and directions, has so seldom
been resorted to, that even the legality of
the process itself, on any other ground,
had remained a matter of general doubt
and uncertainty.

In the present case it met with much
less opposition than might have been
expected. Clamours without doors, and
debates within, on the subject, there cer-
tainly were, but both too feeble and ill-
concerted to promise any success. The
new division of the Volunteers into par-
ties took off the general attention to this
attack upon the use of juries, which, in
any other moment, would not have been
so tamely tolerated. Of such import is
it, when over strong measures are to be
attempted, to prepare the public for the
reception of them by internal disunion
or alarm. Government did not confine
their prosecutions to Mr. Biley. Having
once adopted a mode of proceeding which
so effectually answered the end for which
they designed it, informations were moved
for, and attachments granted against the

different magistrates who called the meet-
ings, and signed the respective resolutions
of the freeholders in the counties of Bos-
common and Leitrim. At the same time
the press too came under the lash of the
attorney-general : and the printers and
publishers of such newspapers as had in-
serted the obnoxious resolutions suffered
with the magistrates who had signed
them.

Notwithstanding these violent measures
which administration were pursuing, the
National Congress met, pursuant to its
appointment, on the 25th day of October.
But as it was far from being complete in
point of number, and several of its most
respectable members choose to absent
themselves, they adjourned, after having-
passed a number of resolutions to the same
purport with those that had been agreed
to at the previous meeting ; and exhorted
in the most earnest manner the communi-
ties which had not sent representatives :
“ if they respected their own consistency,
if they wished for the success of a par-
liamentary reform, and as they tendered
the perpetual liberty and prosperity of
their country, not to let pass that oppor-
tunity of effecting the great and neces-
sary confirmation of the constitution.”

The divisions of the Volunteers were
encouraged by Government ; and for that
purpose discord and turbulence were ra-
ther countenanced than checked in many
counties, particularly upon the delicate
and important expedient of admitting
the Catholics to the elective franchise, a
question, which it was artfully attempted
to connect with the now declining cause
of i)arliamentary reform. Through a
long series of years Government had
never wanted force to quell internal com-
motions ; and it seemed to be now dreaded
lest a union of Irishmen should extinguish
the old means of creating dissension. The
desire of disuniting the Volunteers begat
inattention to the grievances of the dis-
contented and distressed peasantry of the
south : that wretched people once more
assumed the style of Whiteboys ; and for
some time committed their depredations
Avith impunity, particularly against Kil-
kenny, until a stop Avas put to them by
the vigorous efforts of the Bev, Dr. Troy,
then the Boman Catholic bishop of Os-
sory, and the clergy of his diocese ; for
Avhich successful exertions he received the
most satisfactory acknoAvledgments from
GoA'ernment.

As the unanimity of the Volunteers di-
minished, their spirit and exertion abated ;
something, hoAveA’^er, Avas to be attempted
before the meeting of the Parliament. On
the 2d of January, 1785, the second meet-

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

163

ing of the delegates was held at Dublin,
at which were present the representatives
of twenty- seven counties, and of most of
the cities and considerable towns of the
kingdom, amounting in the whole to more
than 200 persons. Their proceedings ap-
pear to have been of the same nature as
those before adopted, with this only dif-
ference, that in the proposed application
to the House of Commons, it was agreed
to confine themselves to the most general
terms, and to leave the mode of redress
as free and open as possible to the con-
sideration of Parliament.

The British Parliament sat to the 25th
of August, 1784, and met again on the
25th of January, 1785, and from his ma-
jesty’s speech it appears, that “ their
first concern was the settlement of all
differences with Ireland. Amongst the
objects which now require consideration, I
must particularly recommend to your
earnest attention the adjustment of such
points in the commercial intercourse be-
tween Great Britain and Ireland as are
not yet finally arranged : the system
which will unite both kingdoms the most
closely on principles of reciprocal advan-
tage, will, I am persuaded, best insure the
general prosperity of my dominions.”

The Parliament of Ireland met on
the 20th of January, 1785, when the lord-
lieutenant addressed them in a speech
recommending to their attention the re-
gulation of the trade and commerce be-
tween the two islands. This was the
prelude to Mr. Orde’s famous “ Com-
mercial Propositions ” for a treaty of
commerce between England and Ireland.
This was a favourite measure of Mr,
Pitt’s, and he had set his heart upon it.
The terms of the proposed commercial
settlement had been previously negotiated
between Mr. Orde, Secretary for Ireland,
and certain Irish commissioners for that
purpose : and on the 7 th of February Mr.
Orde laid the project before the House of
Commons in the form of eleven resolu-
tions. In this original form the Commer-
cial Propositions were not very open to
objection ; for, although most favourable
on the whole to England, they looked fair
and just. The only one which sounded
alarming was the eleventh and last, which
was in these Avords : “11th. Resolved, That,
for the better protection of trade, Avhat-
ever sum the gross hereditary revenue of
this kingdom (after deducting all draw-
backs, repayments, or bounties, granted
in the natui'e of drawbacks), shall pro-
duce, over and above the sum of £056,000
in each year of peace, wherein the annual
revenues shall be equal to the annual
expenses, and in each year of Avar, Avithout

regard to such equality, should be appro-
priated towards the support of the naval
force of the empire, in such manner as
the Parliament of this kingdom shall
direct.”

This excited some opposition in the
House, Mr. Brownlow indignantly ex-
claiming against the idea of their becom-
ing a tributary nation, Mr. Grattan sup-
ported the resolutions ; and after some
debate they were all agreed to by both
Houses. On the 22d of the same month
the eleven Resolutions, as transmitted
from Ireland, were read in a Committee
of the British House of Commons ; and
Mr. Pitt spoke most earnestly in favour
of their passage, and of a definitive treaty
or laAv founded upon them. There was
some opposition and delay. The commer-
cial public of England took the alarm :
petitions poured in, the first of them from
Liverpool : Lancashire sent a petition
signed by eighty thousand persons ; sixty-
four petitions in all Avere presented, all
against the measure, Avhich Avas repre-
sented as a concession to Irish commerce,
therefore ruinous to England. At length,
on tlie 12th of May, 1785, Mr. Pitt
brought forward, in consequence or under
pretext of the neAV light throAvn on
the subject by the examinations, peti-
tions, and reports, a neAv series of
resolutions, twenty in number. The
principal additions to the new scheme
were to provide, 1st, That Avhatever navi-
gation laAvs the British Parliament should
thereafter think fit to enact for the pre-
servation of her marine, the same should
be passed by the legislature of Ireland ;
2dly, Against the importing into Ireland,
and from thence into Great Britain, of any
other West India merchandises than such
as Avere the produce of our own colonies ;
and 3dly, That Ireland should debar itself
from trading Avith any of the countries
beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the
Straits of Magellan, so long as it should
be thought necessary to continue the char-
ter of the English East India Company.

In short, this ncAv scheme of Mr. Pitt
Avas plainly intended as a mode of repeal-
ing and annulling the free trade of the
Volunteers. The Volunteers AA^ere by this
time disunited, disbanded, and disorgan-
ised, and the cannon of Napper Tandy
had gone back to the foundry. The new
series of resolutions gave occasion to eager
debates in the British House of Commons.
It is Avith regret that one finds Mr. Burke
not only supporting the propositions, but
supporting them on the express ground
that they Avent to re-establish the supre-
macy of England over Ireland. He said
— “To consult the interests of England

164

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

and Ireland, to unite and consolidate them
into one, was a task he Avould undertake
as that by which he could best discharge
the duties he owed to both. To Ireland
independence of legislature had been
given ; she was now a co-ordinate, though
less powerful state ; but pre-eminence and
dignity were due to England ; it was she
alone that must bear the weight and bur-
den of the empire ; she alone must pour
out the ocean of wealth necessary for the
defence of it. Ireland and other parts
might empty their little urns to swell the
tide ; they might wield their little puny
tridents ; but the great trident that was
to move the -world must be grasped by
England alone, and dearly it cost her to
hold it. Independence of legislature had
been granted to Ireland ; but no other in-
dependence could Great Britain give her
without reversing the order and decree of
nature. Ireland could not be separated
from England ; she could not exist with-
out her ; she must ever remain under the
protection of England, hei' guardian angeV'
There was another Irishman in the
English House of Commons, who did not
see the matter altogether in this light.
Eichard Brinsley Sheridan, speaking of
Mr. Orde, the English Secretary for Ire-
land, with his insidious propositions,
said : — “ Ireland newly escaped from
harsh trammels and severe discipline, was
treated like a high-mettled horse, hard to
catch ; and the Irish Secretary was sent
back to the field to soothe and coax him,
with a sieve of provender in the one hand
and a bridle in the other.” When the
propositions, as altered, had passed the
Commons, and were bronght into the
House of Lords, it was curious to see the
question treated, not as a matter of com-
merce, bnt as a project for a future union;
which in fact it was. Lord Lansdowne
treated “ the idea of a union as a thing
impracticable. High-minded and jealons
as were the people of Ireland, we mnst
first learn whether they will consent to
give up their distinct empire, their Par-
liament, and all the hononrs which belong
to them.” After debate, however, the
resolutions passed the Lords by a great
majority. Mr. Pitt then bronght in a
bill, founded upon them, which was car-
ried, and was followed up by an address
to his majesty, voted by both Houses of
Parliament, wherein they acquainted him
with what they had done, and that it re-
mained for the Parliament of Ireland to
judge and decide thereupon. On the 12th
of August Mr. Secretary Orde moved the
House for leave to bring in a bill, which
was a mere transcript of that moved by
the English minister. The debates on

this occasion, and more especially on the
side of opposition, were long and ani-
mated. After a vehement debate, which
lasted eighteen hours, the House divided
at nine in the morning, upon the motion
of Mr. Orde to bring in the bill. Ayes,
127 ; noes, 108. Such a division, upon a
preliminary stage, was equivalent to a
defeat ; and on the Monday following
(15th of August) Mr. Orde moved the
first reading of the bill, and that it should
be printed, declaring at the same time
that he did not intend to make any further
progress in the business during the pre-
sent session. He had completed his duty
respecting that measure. In short, the
bill was adjourned, and finally lost. On
the same 15th of August Mr. Flood moved
a resolution : — “ Resolved, That we hold
ourselves bomid not to enter into engage-
ment to give up the sole and exclusive
right of the Parliament of Ireland, in all
cases whatsoever, as well externally as
commercially and internally.” The bill
was withdrawn : Mr. Flood withdrew his
motion ; and from that hour Mr. Pitt
determined to lay his plans for the final
extinguishment of Irish nationality and
its total absorption into that of Great
Britain ; in other words, for the “Union.”

When the Duke of Eutland again met
the Parliament in January, 1785, his
speech intimated that there was a strong
desire on the part of Government to re-
vive the question of the Commercial Pro-
positions ; but there now began to be a
considerable organised opposition to the
Castle— an opposition which had after-
Avards to be “ broken doAvn ” by the usual
and well-understood methods.

Mr. Conolly, and some other gentlemen
of great landed property in the country,
Avho had been much in the habit of sup-
porting Government, now appeared to
have taken a decided part in the opposi-
tion to the Duke of Kutland’s administra-
tion. On the same day the Chancellor of
the Exchequer (Sir John Parnell) stated
that the debt of the nation was £3,011, 1G7 ^
on which Mr. Conolly observed, that the
expenses of Government every year
increased : that the minister came regu-
larly to that House to complain of the
deficiency in the revenue, and demanded
a loan, Avhich was granted on his promise
of future economy : at last the revenue
was raised by new taxes to equal the ex-
pense, and still the expense had increased ;
he (as also Mr. Grattan) insisted upon the
necessity of making a stand against the
growth of expense, or else their constitu-
tion and commerce were at an end.
Accordingly, on the 9th of February, Mr.
Conolly moved the foUoAving resolutions :

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

1G5

1st, That the House did in the last
session grant certain new taxes, esti-
mated at £140,000 per annum, for the
purpose of putting an end to the accu-
mulation of debt. 2d, That should the
said taxes be continued it was abso-
lutely necessary that the expenses of
the nation should be confined to her
annual income. After a warm and long
debate, there appeared, upon a division,
73 for Mr. Conolly’s resolutions, and 149
against them. This was extremely dis-
couraging, and even provoking, to the
people out of doors who had those taxes
to pay, especially as every one knew that
those who in Parliament voted against all
retrenchment and economy were them-
selves continually swelling the public ex-
penditure by soliciting pensions, or by
complacently voting to one another im-
mense sums of the peoifie’s money.

However, the Patriots, in the same ses-
sion, returned to the charge, this time
against the intolerable pension list.

Mr. Porbes led the van on the attack,
and on the Gth of March moved the blouse,
after a very animated speech, that the
present application and amount of pen-
sions on the civil establishment, were a
grievance to the nation, and demanded
redress. The motion produced a very in-
teresting debate, but it shared the same
fate as the bill he afterwards introduced
to limit the amount of pensions, which
■was lost by a majority of 134 against 78.
This bill was most strenuously opposed
by Sir Hercules Langrishe, Mr. Mason,
Mr. George Ponsonby, the attorney -gene-
ral, and the most leading men on the trea-
sury bench, as a direct and indecent inva-
sion of the royal prerogative. The attor •
ney-general asserted that the principle of
the bill went to the most dangerous extent
of any bill that had ever come before l^ar-
liament ; it went to rob the crown of its
responsibility in the disposal of the j)ub-
lic money, and to convey it to that House,
and even to the House of Peers. He then
begged leave to remind the members of
what happened after the passing of their
favourite vote of 1757. The members of
that House caballed together, forming
themselves into little parties, and voting
to each other hundreds of thousands.
And as no Government could go on
without the aid of their leaders, it cost
that nation more to break through that
puisne aristocracy which had made a pro-
perty of Parliament, than what it would
by the pension list for many years. On
the side of the Patriots, all the old argu-
ments were urged with redoubled force
against the pension list. Mr. Grattan
gave great offence by the strong and harsh

assertion, with which he closed his speech
on Mr. Forbes’s motion, viz.: “ If he should
vote that pensions were not a grievance, he
should vote an impudent, an insolent, and a
public lie'’

Mr. Curran took a brilliant part in this
debate. Alluding to the various classes
of foreign and domestic knaves who were
the objects of the royal bounty, he
said: — “This polyglot of wealth, this
museum of curiosities, the pension list,
embraces every link in the human chain ;
every description of men, women, and
children, from the exalted excellence of a
Hawke or Rodney, to the debased situa-
tion of the lady who humbleth herself
that she may be exalted. But the lessons
it inculcates form its greatest perfection ;
it teaches that sloth and vice may eat
that bread which virtue and honesty may
starve for after they had earned it. It
teaches the idle and dissolute to look up
for that support which they are too proud
to stoop to earn. It directs the minds of
men to an entire reliance on the ruling
power of the state, who feeds the ravens
of the royal aviary, that cry continually
for food. It teaches them to imitate those
saints on the pension list, that are like the
lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do
they spin, and yet they are arrayed like
Solomon in all his glory. In fine, it teaches
a lesson, which indeed they might have
learned from Epictetus, that it is some-
times good not to be over- virtuous ; it
shows, that in proportion as our distresses
increase the munificence of the crown in-
creases also ; in proportion as our clothes
are rent, the royal mantle is extended
over us.”

The remaining subject of difference be-
tween the ministry and the Patriots in
that session was upon the police bill,
which had been for a considerable time a
favourite object with Government to carry,
in order to strengthen their interest in the
city of Dublin, which, from the days of
Dr. Lucas, they had felt declining. It
was conceived by the opposition, that if
the bill Avere carried for the city of Dub-
lin, it would in the next session be ex-
tended to every part of the kingdom :
and it was also generally considered, that
the report of popular risings and Popish
conspiracies against the Protestant As-
cendency, had been industriously exagger-
ated for the purpose of intimidating the
Parliament into the adoption of that strong
measure * of government.

* Sir Edward Crofton, in opposing this bill, said
— “I have spoken of Mr. O’Connor in a former
debate, and I am firmly persuaded that, as to that
gentleman, matters have been extremely exagger-
ated and misrepresented. I know it has been men-
tioned as an affair that reouii-ed the interference of

166

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Mr. Conolly took a leading part in op-
posing the police bill, which, he observed,
under the specious pretence of giving
police, went to take away constitution.
He was still positive that he was well-
founded in his opinion, that the conduct
of the administration was inimical to the
constitution. The temperance of the Vo-
lunteers since the noble duke’s adminis-
tration deserved their grateful approba-
tion. When they were misguided, and
adopted measures which he conceived im-
proper, he was not backward in avoving
himself against their proceedings ; but
when he reflected that the moment the
Volunteers were told their conduct was
disagreeable to Parliament, they retired
to the country without a murmur, such
conduct secured his admiration, and made
him tenacious of their liberties ; nor could
their arms be placed in better hands than
where they were.

There were several heated debates upon
this bill ; it was treated by opposition as
a most unconstitutional job, a mere bill of
patronage for ministerial purposes ; al-
though it must be allowed that the secre-
tary offered to alter whatever should be
found objectionable in the committee, and
some of the noxious clauses were Avith-
drawn. Several petitions were presented
against the bill, but received with ill
grace. Amongst other petitions, one was
presented from the freeholders of the
county of Dublin by Sir Edward Newen-
ham, which the attorney-general moved
to have rejected as an insult to the House,
and it Avas rejected by 118 against Sir
EdAvard Xewenham and Colonel Sharman.
The attorney-general boasted of his indul-
gence in not moving a censure against the

Government, and that camps, cannon, and fortifica-
tions were erected. It was also rumoured that the
Roman Catholics were in open rebellion ; this was
an insidious, infamous, and false report, calculated
to cast an undeserved reflection on a body of men
remarkable for their loyalty to their sovereign, and
their known attachment to the constitution ; it was
an illiberal and an infamous attack on a people dis-
tinguished for their peaceable demeanour, and Avas
intended but to serve the purposes of this still more
infamous bill.

“However great my knowledge may liaA’e been
of the loyalty of the Homan Catholics of this coun-
trj', yet I must confess on this occasion I was made
a dupe to report ; for from the gentleman who had
declared the county of Koscommon to be in a state
of rebellion, I could scarcely believe but Govern-
ment had authority for saying so ; I confess, there-
fore, I felt for my property, and it was natural I
should make every possible inquiry. I did so, and
found there was no rebellion in the country; and
also found the trifling disturbances, which had been
so exaggerated, Avere only the effects of some Avhlsky
to Avhich the country people had been treated,
and which every gentleman knoAvs operates on the
lOAver order of people as oil of rhodium docs on rats;
and Avhat Avas very extraordinary, there Avas not a
broken head on the occasion.”

petitioners, but should not again be so
gentle if the offence Avere repeated. This
Avas the most important bill passed during
the session. It Avas the origin and nucleus
of that immense standing army of police
and constabulary Avhich is absolutely un-
der the control of the British Govern-
ment, and has since proved the most effi-
cient part of the garrison by Avhich that
Government holds military occupation of
Ireland.

Government succeeded during the ses-
sion in all the measures it insisted upon,
so that, on proroguing Parliament on the
18 th of May, the viceroy was able gravely
to pay them the usual compliment upon
the salutary laAvs enacted in that session,
and particularly the introduction of a
system of police, as honourable proofs of
their Avisdom, moderation, and prudence.
He, moreover, assured them that his ma-
jesty beheld Avith the highest satisfaction
the zeal and loyalty of the people of Ire-
land, and that he had his majesty’s ex-
press commands to assure them of the
most cordial returns of his royal favour
and parental affection.

It is painful to be obliged to admit,
that at this period (1787) fiA'e years of
nominal independence had actually re-
duced Ireland to a condition of more help-
less prostration at the feet of England
than she had been before ; that the policy
of resuming one by one the liberties
yielded for a moment to the demand
of the Volunteers Avas either in opera-
tion or in preparation. Under Mr. Pitt’s
proposed commercial arrangements, Free
Trade Avould no longer exist. The repeal
of the perpetual IMutiny Bill Avould very
soon matter little, Avhen Government
AAmuld have a standing army of police to
overaAve the Lucasians ” and reformers
of Dublin, and Avhich Avas certain to be
established also in the provinces. The
poAver of the Parliament was noAV unlimit-
ed as to originating its OAvn laAvs ; but for
this very reason it had to be taken pos-
session of in advance by the actual pur-
chase of a commanding majority for the
croAvn; so that the independent Parlia-
ment should still be, as described by
Swift, ahvays firm in its vocation, for the
Court against the Nation. Indeed the
melancholy necessity of keeping in pay a
majority of Parliament is deduced by
Lord Clare from the very fact of that
Parliament’s political independence. The
Government Avas now, he said, at the
mercy of that Parliament, and therefore
had to propitiate it, or Government could
not go on. His argument concludes in
favour of a “ union ” AAuth England as a
cure for all evils. “ Such a connection ”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

167

(as the present), said he, “is formed not for
mutual strength and security, hut for
mutual debility. It is a connection of
distinct minds and distinct interests,
generating national discontent and jeal-
ousy, and perpetuating faction and mis-
government in the inferior country. The
first obvious disadvantage to Ireland is, that
ineverydepartment of the state, every other
consideration must yield to parliamentary
power; let the misconduct of any pub-
lic officer be what it may, if he is sup-
ported by a powerful parliamentary in-
terest, he is too strong for the king’s
representative. A majority of the Par-
liament of Great Britain will defeat the
minister of the day ; but a majority of
the Parliament of Ireland against the
king’s government, goes directly to separ-
ate this kingdom from the British Crown.
If it continues, separation or war is the
inevitable issue ; and therefore it is, that
the general executive of the empire, as far
as is essential to retain Ireland as a mem-
ber of it, is completely at the mercy of
the Irish Parliament ; and it is vain to
expect, so long as man continues to be a
creature of passion and interest, that he
will not avail himself of the critical and
difficult situation, in which the execu-
tive Government of this kingdom must
ever remain, under its present constitu-
tion, to demand the favours of the Crown, not
as the reward of loyalty and service, hut as
the stipulated price, to be paid in advance,
for the discharge of a public duty. Every
unprincipled and noisy adventurer, who
can achieve the means of putting himself
forward, commences his political career
on an avowed speculation of profit and
loss : and if he fail to negotiate his politi-
cal job, will endeavour to extort it by
faction and sedition, and with unblushing
effrontery to fasten his owm corruption on
the king’s ministers. — English influence
is the inexhaustible theme for popular
irritation and distrust of every factious
and discontented man, who fails in the
struggle to make himself the necessary
instrument of it. Am I then justified in
stating that our present connection with
Great Britain is in its nature formed for
mutual debility ; that it must continue to
generate national discontent and jealousy,
and perpetuate faction and misgovern-
ment in Ireland ? ” *

* This famous speech is only cited in this place to
show how very coolly a Lord Chancellor of Ireland
could explain and avow the existence, the necessity,
and the whole mechanism of the corrupt manage-
ijnent of the Irish Parliament. As an argument for
a union, his speech may have its value, hut it is
much better as an argument for total separation.
Those who thought with his lordship that England
must some how rule over Ireland naturally became

CHAPTER XXIII.

1787—1789.

Alarms and rumours of disturbances. — Got up by
Government. — Act against illegal combinations. — •
Mr. Grattan on Tithes. — Failure of his efforts. —
Death of Duke of Rutland. — Marquis of Bucking-
ham, Viceroy. — Independence of Mr. Curran. —
Mr. Forbes and the Pension List. — Failure of his
motion. — Triumph of corruption. — Troubles in
Armagh County. — “Peep-of-Day Boys." — “De-
fenders.”— Insanity of the King. — The Regency.

When Parliament met, according to the
last adjournment on the 18th of January,
1787, the lord-lieutenant particularly
applied to them for their assistance
in the effectual vindication of the laws,
and the protection of society. On this
part of his address Mr. Conolly made
some very severe observations ; dis-
tinctly, indeed, charging the Govern-
ment with having invented, or at least
grossly exaggerated, the rumours of dis-
turbances at the south “ to intimidate
the Protestants of that kingdom, and to
furnish an immediate pretext for the un-
constitutional police-bill — and “ that
the first thing that could be called a dis-
turbance induced him to think that Go-
vernment had a hand in it.” This involves
a charge against the Government so atro-
cious and revolting — calumniating the for-
lorn and friendless Catholics of Munster
to produce an alarm of threatened insur-
rection and thus be the more readily
armed with a great police force, that it
would be difficult to believe it, if we did
not know, from subsequent events, that
this kind of procedure is familiar to the
British Government in Ireland, and forms
one of its chief agencies. There were
several statements and counter state-
ments as to the existence and extent of
these alleged riots. Mr. Curran who then,
and always, took the part of the op-
pressed, said : “ Is it any wonder, that
the wretches whom woful and long ex-
perience has taught to doubt, and with
justice to doubt, the attention and relief
of the legislature, wretches that have the
utmost difficulty to keep life and soul to-
gether, and who must inevitably perish if
the hand of assistance were not stretched
out to them, should appear in tumult ?
No, sir, it is not. Unbound to the sove-
reign by any proof of his affection, un-
bound to Government by instance of any
its protection, unbound to the country,
or to the soil, by being destitute of any

unionists: those who tlionght that Ireland should
rule herself, and that if all her people formed one
united nation she could both govern and protect
herself, became stiU more logically united Irishmen.

168

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

property in it, ’tis no wonder that the
peasantry should be ripe for rebellion and
revolt : so far from matter of surpiise, it
must naturally have been expected.

“ The supineness of the magistrates, and
the low state of the commissions of the
peace throughout the kingdom, but par-
ticularly ill the county of Cork, should be
rectified, A system of vile jobbing ivas
one of the misfortunes of that country :
it extended even to the commissions of the
peace : how else could the report of the
four and twenty commissions of the
peace, sent down to the county of Clare
in one post be accounted for? Even the
appointment of sheriffs ivas notoriously in
the hands of government ; and through
jobbing, sheriffs themselves could not be
trusted : two sheriffs ran away last year
with executions in their pockets, and the
late high sheriff of the county of Dublin
had absconded.”

There were indeed local disturbances,
as in the first days of Whiteboyism, pro-
voked solely by the tithe-devouring cler-
gymen and by the intolerable oppressions
of the landlords ; but in no way partaking
of an insurrectionary organization, nor
directed to revolutionary ends. Mr. Fitz-
gibbon, then attorney-general, told Par-
liament some marvellous tales. He blamed
the landlords as the chief cause of the
disturbances ; and said “ he knew that,
the unhappy tenantry were ground to
powder by relentless landlords. He knew
that, far from being able to give the clergy
their just dues, they had not food or
raiment for themselves ; the landlord
grasped the whole, and sorry was he to
add, that not satisfied with the present
extortion, some landlords had been so base
as to instigate the insurgents to rob the
clergy of their tithes, not in order to allevi-
ate the distresses of the tenantry, but that
they might add the clergy’s share to the
cruel rack rents already paid. It would
require the utmost ability of Parliament
to come to the root of those evils," He
closed by moving a resolution — “ That it
is the opinion of this committee, that some
further provisions by statute are indis-
pensably necessary to prevent tumultuous
risings and assemblies, and for the more
adequate and effectual punishment of
persons guilty of outrage, riot, and illegal
combination, and of administering and
taking unlawful oaths.”

A bill for these purposes was soon after
brought in by Eitzgibbon and after sharp
debates, and a vigorous opposition by Mr.
Conolly and others, was read a second
time, committed by a very large majority,
and passed.

Mr. Grattan who, while he desired to

see the laws enforced, yet was very sensi-
ble of the unendurable oppression prac-
tised on the peasantry, brought up on
the 13th of March, the whole subject of
tithes, which he considered a. disgrace
to the Protestant Church, as well as a
grievious burden to the Catholic people.
He moved the following resolution: “That
if it appear, at the commencement of the
next session of Parliament, that pub-
lic tranquillity has been restored in these
l^arts of the kingdom that have lately
been disturbed, and due obedience paid to
the laws, this House will take into con-
sideration the subject of tithes, and en-
deavour to form some plan for the hon-
ourable support of the clergy, and the-
ease of the people.”

IVIr. Secretary Orde differed from Mr,
Grattan, and insisted, that in the existing
circumstances of the country it was im-
possible in any degree to hold out an
expectation, that the House would even
enter upon the subject. Hereupon arose
a warm debate ; and there were not want-
ing honourable members to affirm that
the established Church was no burden on
the people, and that rectors and vicars
rather saved money to a Catholic parish
than otherwise. It may be conceived how
Grattan’s gall rose when he heard such
arguments as these. “ It has been said,”
he exclaimed, “ that the exoneration of
potatoes-from tithe would be of no advan-
tage to the poor. Where had gentlemen
learned that doctrine ? Certainly not in
the report of Lord Carhampton. Or
would they say, that taking sixteen shil-
lings an acre off potatoes is no benefit to
the miserable man who depends on them
as his only food ? ”

Mr. Grattan persisted with the motion
for a committee to inquire whether any
just cause of complaint existed among the
people of Munster, or of Kilkenny or
Carlow on account of tithe, or the collec-
tion of tithe. His speech upon this occa-
sion is considered as one of his master-
pieces, both of reason and eloquence. It
produced a great effect upon the country;
none whatever upon the House. Only
forty-nine voted for Grattan’s motion
but 121 gave their voice against all in-
quiry. The poor peasantry were left at
the mercy, as before, of the tithe-priests
and proctors, and of the grinding land-
lords ; and so remain, without improve-
ment to this day. They felt that there
was no Parliament for them, no law, no
protection, no sympathy ; and we cannot
but agree with Mr. Curran that the only
wonder would have been if they did not
occasionally set fire to a parson’s stack-
yard, or that they did not cut off a tithe-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

16f>

proctor’s ears Avhen they met him in a
convenient place.

The Duke of Kutland died in October,
1787 — died, it is said, in consequence of
his excesses and debauchery. He was a
good-natured and jovial nobleman, and
more than sustained the hospitable charac-
ter of Dublin Castle. As for public
business, he committed all that to the
management of those around him, expe-
rienced intriguers who knew better than
he how “ to do the king’s business.” And
as there was but one machinery known
which was capable of making public busi-
ness move in Ireland, and as the viceroy’s
advisers felt it their duty to be liberal at
the nation’s expense, the cost of Govern-
ment rapidly increased during his vice-
royalty. In the very year of his death,
for example, the pension list Avas increasecl
by additional grants to the amount of
£8730 over what it had been the year be-
fore. The Duke of Kutland was suc-
ceeded by the Marquis of Buckingham,
who met the Parliament for the first time
on the 17th of January, 1788. In the ad-
dress of the Commons in reply to his
speech, Mr. Parsons objected to one clause
which gave unqualified approbation to the
public course of the late viceroy, and
seemed therefore to bind the House to
pursue the same measures. He remarked
on the largely increased expenses and the
enormous pension list, and remarked that
neither in the speech from the throne nor
in the address was the Avord economy to be
found. He moved an amendment, but of
course it aa'us negatived AAdthoiit a divi-
sion. It may be said in general of the
administration of the Marquis of Buck-
ingham, that it AA^as conducted on the
same principle (or negation of principle)
and by the same unprincipled men as that
of the Duke of Rutland. It AA^as thought
advisable to purchase a feAv patriots.
What communications the marquis made
to his converts cannot noAV be stated AAuth
commercial exactitude, but he certainly
inaugurated his term of office by persuad-
ing to silence some noisy members of the
opposition. On this occasion it is agree-
able to record an honourable trait of one
of those patriots AAdiose memory is dearly
cherished in Ireland, John Philpot Cur-
ran. Amongst other proselytes that Avent
over to the new viceroy Av^as Mr. Long-
field, Avho had considerable parliament-
ary interest ; he and the friends he
introduced had uniformly opposed the
late administration ; amongst these Avas
Mr. Curran, Avho having been brought
into Parliament by Mr. Longfield, could
not bend his principles to the pliancy of
his friend, or take a subordinate part in |

supporting an administration whose in-
tended measures were made a secret • he
therefore purchased a seat in a vacant
borough, and offered it to Mr. Longfield
for any person whose principles AA^ere at
his command. Thus did Mr. Curran
retain his seat and parliamentary inde-
pendence ; and Mr. Longfield was enabled
to fulfil his engagements AAuth the minis-
ter, for his OAAui and his dependant’s votes
in Parliament.

Early in this first session, IMr. Forbes
made aiiother effort against the pension
list, Avhich had become his special subject.
He had been taunted on a former occasion
AAuth making his attacks too general, in-
stead of denouncing particular examples ;
and a sporting member of the Castle
party had assured him that the man
“ aaJio fires at a whole covey does not hit
a feather.” He now desired that a list of
the pensions granted since the last session
of Parliament might be read. He then ob-
jected to a pension of £1000, to James
BroAvn, Esq., late prime sergeant, on the
principle only of its being granted to a
member of the House during pleasure.
He remarked, that by the English act for
further securing the liberties of the sub-
ject, it was x^i’ovided, that after the
accession of the present family to the
throne, no jAensioner during i)leasure
should sit or vote in the House of Com-
mons. The people of Ireland had a right
to lAarticijAate Avith the inhabitants of
Great Britain in all the benefits and pri-
vileges of that act, and the Bill of Rights.
He moved “ that this j)ension AA*as a mis-
application of the reA^enue.” He also on
the same day mentioned the jAension of
£610 to Thomas Higinbotham for life,
adding that he was astonished that so
large a portion of the public money should
be disposed of AAuthout the knoAAdedge or
privity of the chancellor of the exchequer;
and that for such a transaction all the
servants of the croAAm should deny any
responsibility ; he then objected to a pen-
sion of £1200 per annum to Robert Ash-
wood for the life of his son, and also two
other lAensions of £300 each, and one of
£200 to the same person, for IHes of his
other children. He stated that a pension
of £2000 per annum had been granted in
the year 1755, for the life of Frederick
Robinson ; that the family of Robinson
had lately sold that pension to Mr. Ash-
AAmrth, and had influence with Government
sufficient to prevail on the minister to
change the life in the grant, and to insert
the lives of the young children of Mr.
Aslworth in the place of Mr. Robinson ;
that this management was now become a
frequent practice ; and that thereby a

170

mSTORT OF IRELAND.

grant of a pension for life operated as a
lease for lives with a covenant of per-
petual renewal.

He then moved that the above pension
“was an improvident disposition of the
revenue.” It is almost needless to add
that all Mr. Forbes’ motions were nega-
tived without a division. Nothing, per-
haps, can better illustrate the shameless
character of the universal venality than
the timid objection made by a ministerial
member against the necessity of doubling
pensions to members of Parliament. Sir
Henry Cavendish, though he declared his
unqualified devotion to that administra-
tion, 3^et remarked, that doubling the
pensions of members might be avoided,
“ for,” said he, “ suppose it appears that
£400 a year are annexed to the name of a
member of this House, and that no par-
ticular cause could be assigned for the
grant, may it not be conjectured that it
was made for his service in that House,
and if so, an additional pension is unne-
cessary, for he that has £400 a year for
his vote will not refuse voting though
he were to be refused £400 a year more.”
— (Par. Debates, vol. viii.) In truth it
would be irksome and unprofitable to re-
cord these many unavailing efforts of the
Patriots to restrain the progress of public
corruption, but that the revelations made
on such occasions exhibit the whole ma-
chinery by which Irish government was
carried on, or could have been carried on
for a single Aveek : and shoAv that the
British rule in that country consisted
simply in making the Irish people pay
large salaries to certain men for repre-
senting and betraying them.

It is just, lioAveA'er, to the honest Irish-
men in that corrupt assembly to signalize
and remember their useless but heroic
efforts against the deluge of corruption.

The most violent attack upon the minis-
ter, during this session of Parliament, Avas
made on the 29th of February, Avhen Mr.
Forbes moA^ed his address to the croAvn, in
order at least to leaA^e to posterity on the
face of their journals the grievances under
which the people laboured in the A^ear
1788. He prefaced his motion by a very
interesting speech, founded on facts, to
be collected from the journals of the
House, or from authentic documents then
lying on the table. He travelled over
much of his former arguments against
the prodigality of the late administration,
which had increased the pension list by
£2G,000. He took that opportunity of
giving notice, that he meant next session
to offer a bill to that House for the pur-
pose of creating a responsibility in the
ministers of Ireland for the application of

the revenue of that kingdom. The only
authority under which the vice-treasurer
then paid any money was a king’s letter,
countersigned by the commissioners of
the English treasury. He adverted Avith
marked censure to the addition of £2000
to the salary of the secretary in the late
administration, and to the large sums ex-
pended in the purchase and embellishment
of his house in the Phcenix Park, and to
the present intent of granting a pension
of £2000 to that very secretary for life,
Avhich was establishing a most mischietmus
precedent for such grants to every future
secretary. He Avas sorry to hear the os-
tensible minister aA-ail himself of the same
argument Avhich his predecessors had suc-
cessfully used for the last ten years in
resisting eA^ery attack upon the pension
list. He then enlarged upon the perni-
cious consequences of placing implicit
confidence in the administration, and sup-
ported his thesis by the folloAving histori-
cal illustrations: —

From the year 1773 to 1776, confidence
in the administration of that day had
cost this nation £100,000 in neAv taxes,
and £440,000 raised by life annuities. In
1778, confidence in the administration
cost £300,000 in life annuities ; a sum
granted for the purpose of defence, and
Avhich produced, on an alarm of invasion,
one troop of horse and half a company
of invalids. In 1779, the then secretary,
for the purpose of opposing a measure
for relief against the abuses of the
pension list, read in this House an ex-
tract of a letter from the Secretary of
State in England, expresswe of the deter-
mination of the then English ministry,
not to increase the pension list ; confi-
dence Avas placed in the administration of
the day, and it cost the country £13,000
in iieAv pensions, granted by the same
secretary. In April, 1782, on the arriA*al
of the principal of the neAv administration,
confidence, in the first instance, AA*as nei-
ther asked nor granted ; certain measures
Avere proposed by the Commons and the
people, they Avere granted, and the coun-
try Avas emancipated. In 1785, confidence
in the administration of that day, cost
Ireland £140,000 ncAV taxes to equalise
the income and expenditure ; but the
grant produced £180,000 excess of ex-
penses. The same confidence cost £20,000
per annum for a police establishment,
Avhich it had been proved at their bar
contributed to the A’iolation, instead of
the preserA’ation of the peace of the me-
tropolis.

The same confidence, he said, cost this
nation last year £100,000, charged for
buildings and gardens in the Phoenix

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

171

Park : in fine, they might place nearly
two-thirds of the national debt to the
account of confidence in the administra-
tion of the day. He then moved an ad-
dress to his majesty setting forth the
entire abuse of the pension system : that,
on the 1st of January, 1788, the list of
pensions had increased to ^90,289 per
annum, exclusive of military pe7isions, and
charges under the head of incidents on the
civil establishment, and additional salaries
to sinecure officers — both of which were
substantially pensions ; and that this
made an amount much greater than the
pension list of England. It was in vain :
the bribed majority listened to Mr. Eorbes
with a complacent smile ; and again his
motion fell without a division.

After another attempt of Mr. Grattan
to get a committee on tithes. Parliament
was prorogued unexpectedly on the 14th
of April, to the surprise and irritation of
the people. The natural quickness of
their sensations was accelerated by dis-
appointment, when they found, that all
that was done relative to tithes was,
to provide for the clergy what some
of them had lost by retention of the
tithes ill the two preceding years, and
to secure to them for ever a tithe of
hemp of 5s. per acre. The failure in every
popular attempt of the Patriots went but
a little way to soothe the rufiled minds of
the distressed peasantry in the provinces,
or of the middling and higher orders in
the metropolis and larger towns. Not-
withstanding the increase of peace officers
under the police bill, it was sarcastically
observed that his excellency had the peace
and tranquillity of the country deeply at
heart, for that, upon the slightest appear-
ance of interruption, he was sure to call
in the aid of the military.

The attention of the public began at
this moment to be turned away from the
futile parliamentary contests to scenes
which were taking place in the northern
county of Armagh. The Catholics, once
almost extirpated from that and some
neighbouring counties, had again in-
creased and multiplied there. This had
been caused in a great measure by the
large emigration of Protestants to Ame-
rica, leaving extensive regions nearly dis-
peopled. Many Catholics with their fami-
lies, who had been starving on the bare
mountains of Connaught and Donnegal,
began to venture back to the pleasant val-
leys where their fathers had dwelt, and
offered to become tenants to deserted
farms. Landlords accepted these tenants
for want of Protestants, and they were
followed by others. Protestant farmers
were thus exposed to competition, to the

manifest injury of the Protestant interest,
and much ill-feeling and some violent col-
lisions had been the consequence. At
length, in 1784, the Protestants formed
themselves in Armagh County into a
secret association, calling itself “ Peep-of-
Day Boys,” in allusion to their custom of
repairing at that hour to the houses of the
Catholics, dragging them out of bed, and
otherwise maltreating them. Even the
furious Protestant partisan. Sir Kichard
Musgrave, gives this account of the ban-
ditti in question: — “They visited the
houses of their antagonists at a very early
hour in the morning to search for arms,
and it is most certain that in doing so
they often committed the most wanton
outrages, insulting their persons and
breaking their furniture,” etc. Of
course human nature could not en-
dure this treatment, and the Catholics
of Armagh formed a counter-associa-
tion, which they called by a name quite
as descriptive as the other, “ The Defend-
ers.” Many encounters soon took place,
and sometimes in considerable numbers ;
but as the Catholics Avere then greatly a
minority of the population of the county,
were very poor, and could scarcely pro-
cure any arms, which, besides, it Avas
against the law for them to possess, it is
not Avonderful if the advantage rested
generally, though not ahvays, Avith the
Protestant aggressors.

Either for the purpose or under the
pretence of checking the spirit of turbu-
lence and outrage, in the year recourse
again Av^as had to the raising of some Vo-
lunteer corps, by Avay of strengthening, as
it Avas said, the arm of the civil magis-
trate. It was not in the nature of tilings
that these Volunteer corps, into Avhich
they refused to admit any Catliolic,
should not be more obnoxious to the De-
fenders than to the Peep-of-Day Boys ;
for although they should not have shown
favour or affection to any description of
men disturbing the public tranquillity,
yet it was the first part of their duty to
disarm the Defenders (being Papists),
and in their arms had they for some time
found their only safety and defence
against their antagonists. Some occa-
sional conflicts happened both between
the Defenders and Peep-of-Day Boys,
and between the Defenders and the Vo-
lunteers. As a corps of Volunteers, in
going to church at Armagh, passed by a
Catholic chapel, a quarrel arose Avith
some of the congregation, and stones Avere
throAvn at the Volunteers. After service,
instead of avoiding the repetition of in-
sult by taking another route, the Volun-
teers procured arms, returned to the spot,

172

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

and a conflict ensued in "which they killed
some of the Catholic congregation. In
consequence of these rencounters, and the
Defenders procuring and retaining what
firearms they could, the Earl of Charle-
mont, governor of the county, and the
grand jury, published a manifesto against
all Papists who should assemble in arms,
and also against any person who should
attempt to disarm them without legal
authority. In addition to these efforts,
some of the Peep-of-Day Boys sought
also to disarm their antagonists by
means of the law ; they accordinglj'
indicted some of the Defenders at the
summer assizes of 1788 ; but Baron
Hamilton quashed the indictments, and
dismissed both parties with an impressive
exhortation to live in peace and brotherly
love. The Defenders about this time
were charged with openly sending chal-
lenges both to the Peep-of-Day Boys and
the Volunteers to meet them in the field ;
the fact was, that the Defenders certainly
did look upon them both as one common
enemy combined to defeat and oppress
them : whilst, therefore, this open hosti-
lity between the two parties subsisted and
rankled under the daily festering sore of
religious acrimony, the Defenders, who
knew themselves armed against law,
though in self-defence against the Peep-
of-Day Boys, became the more anxious to
bring their antagonists to an open trial of
strength, rather than remain victims to
the repeated outrages of their domiciliary
visits, or other attempts to disarm them.
Thus a private squabble between peasants
gradually SAvelled into a village brawl,
and ended in the religious war of a whole
district.

These Protestant Peep-of-Day Boys
were called also “ Protestant Boys,” and
in some districts ‘‘ ^Yreckers.” The asso-
ciation of these plundering banditti after-
wards developed itself into the too-famous
organisation of “ Orangemen,” which in
our own day has counted among its ac-
complices an uncle of Queen Victoria, has
made riots in Canada, and has wrecked
Catholic churches and burned convents in
the United States.

King George the Third, who never had
much mind, this year lost the little he
had, and was pronounced insane by the
court physicians. Then at once arose the
question of the regency. The Prince of
Wales Avas then twenty- six years of age ;
and Avas associated politically and socially
Avith Whigs ; an association by no means
creditable to them. But though not cre-
ditable, it might be useful to his friends,
if he Avere noAv to be recognised regent,
with full poAvers of royalty. On the other

hand, ]\Ir. Pitt and the Tories saw con-
stitutional objections. Mr. Fox opposed
the motion of Mr. Pitt for an examination
of constitutional precedents, inasmuch as
the minister kneAv there Avere no prece
dents applicable to the case ; and contended
that the heir apparent, being of full
age, could and ought to exercise all the
functions of royalty by his own inherent
right : Mr. Pitt replied that during the
sovereign’s natural life, the heir apparent
Avas no more entitled to the regency than
any other subject in the kingdom ; and that
it was “ little less than treason ” to affirm
the contrary. Mr, Burke supported the
Whig vieAv of the subject ; that is, main-
tained the right of the prince to regency
Avith full poAvers. The administration,
hoAvever, Avas quite sure of a majority in
both Houses ; and this availed more than
all the constitutional arguments in the
Avorld.

The AA’hole question could have but
little interest for the Irish nation ; be-
cause AvhoeA^er should be king or regent in
England, the course of British govern-
ment in this country would have con-
tinued precisely the same, so far as any
real interest of the people Avas concerned ;
but there AA'ere, unliappily, Whigs and
Tories in Ireland also ; and on this occa-
sion, as ever since, the Irish parties at-
tached themseh'es to their respectiA^e
party connections in England, It Avas
knoAvn also that the powerful interests of
the houses of Leinster, Shannon, and
Tyrone, the Fitzgeralds, Boyles, and
Beresfords Avere Whigs ; being, not unna-
turally, attached to the party Avhich had
supported in England the claim of Ireland
to legislatiA^e independence. Some states-
men, therefore, A^ery soon saAv the proba-
bility of a collision betAveen the tAvo Par-
liaments upon the regency. Indiscreet
anticipations of such a difference had al-
ready been expressed in debate. Lord
Loughborough, for example, Avho took the
lead of opposition in the Peers, amongst
other arguments in support of the prince’s
inherent right, strongly urged the incon-
veniency and mischief Avhich might arise
from the contrary doctrine, Avhen it
should come to be acted upon by the in-
dependent kingdom of Ireland. Was it
remembered, said his lordship, that a
neighbouring kingdom stood connected
Avith us, and acknoAvledged allegiance to
the British croAvn. If once the rule of
regular succession Avere departed from
by the tAvo Iiouses, hoAv Avere they
sure that the neighbouring kingdom
Avould acknoAvledge the regent aaLoiu
the tAvo Houses Avould take upon them-
selves to elect. The probability Avas,

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

173

that the neighbouring kingdom would
depart, in consequence of our departure,
from the rule of hereditary succession,
and choose a regent of their own, which
must lead to endless confusion and em-
barrassment.

But in answer to this part of Lord
Loughborough’s speech. Lord Chancellor
Thurlow lamented that any remarks
should have fallen from the noble and
learned lord respecting Ireland, because
he considered them as not unlikely, Spar-
gere voces in vulgum arnhiguas 1 Such vague
and loose suggestions could answer no
useful purpose, but might produce very
mischievous consequences. He declared
that he had every reliance on the known
loyalty, good sense, and affection of that
country, and felt no anxiety on the dan-
ger of Ireland’s acting improperly.

In fact, after long and violent debates
in the English Lords and Commons, Mr.
Pitt’s measure of a limited regency was
carried in England. The limitations were
indeed very great, as the regent’s jiower
was not to extend to “ the granting of any
office in reversion, or to granting for any
other term than during his majesty’s plea-
sure, any pension or any office whatever,
except such as must by law be granted for
life, or during good behaviour, nor to the
granting of any rank or dignity of the
peerage.” While the debates in England
were pending, peremptory instructions
were received by the viceroy. Lord Buck-
ingham, to procure (with “ unlimited dis-
cretion ” as to the means)* from the Irish
Parliament a formal recognition, that
whomsoever Great Britain should ap-
point as regent, should, ipso facto, be re-
ceived in Ireland with all the restrictions
and limitations imposed upon the regent
in Great Britain, with peremptory orders
to convene the Parliament the instant his
excellency could answer for a majority
for carrying such recognition. Unusual
exertions to gain over the members to
that point were used by all the means
which the Castle influence, aided at that
time by the British treasury, could com-
mand. Threats also were circulated, and
generally credited (not rashly, as experi-
ence afterwards proved) that whoever,
possessing place or pension, should vote
against the minister, would forfeit or be
deprived. Yet it was soon apparent that
the canvass of the Castle would fail of
success on this important and perilous
occasion. The Marquis of Buckingham

* This statement concerning “unlimited dis-
cretion ” is made on the authority of Mr. Plowden,
a very careful and conscientious inquirer. Besides,
if the fact had never been affirmed, it would be in
itself too probable to admit of much doubt.

had grown extremely unpopular amongst
the leaders of Irish politics, and it was
universally believed that his government
was going to be of very short duration.
In short, it was previously known that
Government would be left in a minority
on the question ; they therefore deferred
the evil day as long as possible, and con-
vened the Parliament only on the 5th of
February, after the whole plan had been
settled and submitted to by the prince in
England. On an emergency so pressing,
the lord-lieutenant, who at no time had
been popular, now found himself impor-
tuned and harassed beyond bearing ; the
death of Sir William Montgomery and
Lord Clifden, who held lucrative places
under Government, brought upon him a
greedy swarm of applicants, who imposed
their extortionate demands Avith an arro-
gance in proportion to the value now
known to be set upon a single vote at the
Castle. The truth seems to be that this
lord-lieutenant, with all his “ unlimited
discretion,” had not places and pensions
and money sufficient to insure the needful
majorities. If the Castle majority de-
serted the viceroy, then it Avas not on ac-
count or any fault on his part, but rather
on account of his one virtue, Avhich they
could never forgive — economy of the pub-
lic money. In a debate Avhich arose in
the House Avhile this regency question
Avas still aAvaiting decision, and in which
the administration of the Marquis of
Buckingham Avas made the subject of
severe comment, Mr. Corry admitted a
large increase of salary in his appoint-
ment (surveyor of the ordnance), but
could at the same time sIioav some savings
to the public in his department Avhich
Avould fully justify Avhatever alteration
had been made : the intention of the
alteration Avas to place the management
in the hands of men Avho might be sup-
posed above the little arts of i)lunder and
peculation, Avhich had before disgraced
the department, much to the public loss.
He had ever opposed the extension of
pensions, and opposition to that practice
Avas one of the conditions on which he had
accepted of office ; but he could not see
that the Marquis of Buckingham deserved
censure because a bill to limit pensions
had been opposed in his administration.
The majority of the House stood pledged
to oppose the bill ; but the marquis had
not added a pension to the list. This was
not indeed altogether correct ; as he had
agreed to a pension of £2000 in favour of
Mr. Orde, of the “ Commercial Proposi-
tions.” Mr. Grattan, in the same debate,
said, “The expenses of the Marquis of
Buckingham Avere accompanied with the

174

HISTOKT OF IRELAND.

most extraordinary professions of eco-
nomy, and censures on the conduct of the
administration that immediately preceded
him ; he had exclaimed against the pen-
sions of the Duke of Rutland, a man
accessible undoubtedly to applications,
but the most disinterested man on earth,
and one whose noble nature demanded
some, but received no indulgence from
the rigid principles or professions of the
Marquis of Buckingham. He exclaimed
against his pensions, and he confirmed
them : he resisted motions made to dis-
allow some of them ; and he finally agreed
to a pension for Mr. Orde the secretary of
the Duke of Portland’s administration,
whose extravagance was at once the object
of his invective and his bounty : he re-
sisted his pension, if report says true ; and
having shown that it was against his con-
science, he submitted. Mr. Orde can
never forgive the marquis the charges
made against the man he thought proper
to reward ; the public will never forgive
the pension given to a man the marquis
thought proper to condemn.” What Avas
e\'en worse than this, and Avhat the Castle
statesmen of that day could still less for-
give, it appears, from the same speech of
!Mr. Grattan, that “ while the Marquis of
Buckingham was professing a disinterested
regard for the prosperity of Ireland, he
disposed of the best reversion in Ireland
to his own family ; the only family in the
Avorld that could not Avith decency receive
it, as he Avas the only man in the Avorld
Avho could not Avith decency dispose of it
to them.”

After this it Avill not appear wonderful
that the high and mighty aristocratic
houses of Ireland, Avith all their train and
infiuence, abandoned the Castle in this
important crisis. Mr. Grattan, of course,
and most of the Patriot minority, Avould
have A'oted Avith the English Whigs at
any rate. It is just to admit that many
of the Irish Whigs would have done the
same, independently of all considerations
of interest and patronage ; but Avhen to
these poAverful parties was added the
croAvd of x^olitical merchants and vote-
sellers Avho could not hope to be paid, or
to be paid enough, it is not strange that
the “ king’s business” Avas not efficiently
done.

The 11th of February, 1789, Avas the
great day of contest upon the Regency of
Ireland : Mr. Grattan and Mr. Fitzgibbon
took the lead on the opposite sides : the
House being in committee on the state of
the nation, after some preliminary con-
versation, in Avhich the plan of the Castle
was candidly avoAved by Mr. Fitzherbert,
Mr. Grattan said, that the right honour-

able gentleman had stated the plan of the
Castle to be limitation and a bill. He
proposed to name for the regency of that
realm. His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales ; in that they perfectly agreed,
and only followed the most decided
wishes of the people of Ireland ; they
Avere clear, and had been so from the first,
that His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales ought, and must be the regent;
but they Avere also clear, that he should
be inA^ested Avith the full regal power ;
plenitude of royal poAver. The limitations,
Avhich a certain member proposed to im-
pose, Avere suggested AA'ith a vieAv to pre-
serve a servile imitation of the proceedings
of another country, not in the choice of a
regent, AAffiich Avas a common concern, but
in the particular provisions and limita-
tions, AA’hich AA^ere not a common concern,
but in the particular circumstances of the
different countries. The bill, or instru-
ment Avhich he called a bill, aa’us sug-
gested on an opinion, that an Irish act of
Parliament might pass without a king in
a situation to giA'e the royal assent, and
Avithout a regent appointed by the Irish
Houses of Parliament to supply his place.
The idea of limitation, he conceh^ed to
be an attack on the necessary poAver of
GoA^ernment ; the idea of his bill Avas an
attack on the King of Ireland. They
had heard the Castle dissenting from
their suggestion. It remained for them to
take the business out of their hands, and
confide the custody of the great and im-
portant matter to men more constitutional
and respectable. The Lords and Commons
of Ireland, and not the Castle, should take
the leading part in tliis great duty. The
country gentlemen, who procured the
constitution, should nominate the regent.
He should submit to them the proceedings
they intended in the discharge of that
great and necessary duty. Mr. Grattan
contended that the proper course Avas not
a bill, but an address, citing the authority
of the address to the Prince of Orange on
the abdication of King James.

Mr. Conolly then rose and said, that on
that melancholy occasion, AA'hich CA^ery
gentleman in and out of office lamented,
and none more sincerely than he did, it
had fallen to the lot of the tAvo Houses to
put into the kingly office a substitute for
their beloA’^ed soA'ereign ; and there seemed
to be but one mind, AAffiich AA*as to make
that substitute the illustrious person Avho
had, of all others, the greatest interest in
preserving the prerogative of the croAvn
and the constitution of the realm.

He entirely coincided in the plan IMr.
Grattan had proposed, because he AV'as
convinced it Avas consonant to the consti-

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

175

tution, and such as his royal highness, to
whom he should then move an address,
must necessarily approve. He hoped they
would be unanimous on the occasion. He
therefore moved the following resolution :

“ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this
committee, that a humble address be pre-
sented to his royal highness to take upon
himself the government of this realm,
during the continuation of his majesty’s
present indisposition, and no longer, and
under the style and title' of Prince Kegent
of Ireland, in the name of his majesty to
exercise and administer, according to the
laws and constitution of this kingdom,
all regal powers, jurisdiction, and prero-
gatives to the crown and government
thereof belonging.”

The motion was seconded by Mr. George
Ponsonby.

Several of the former friends of the
Castle supported the address, when Mr.
Pitzgibbon (who was still attorney-gene-
ral, afterwards Earl of Clare) rose to
oppose it. He made this question, as he
made every question, an occasion to in-
culcate the idea of a legislative union,
which was even then his great political
aim, and continued to be so until he
attained it.

He maintained that the crown of Ire-
land and the crown of England were
inseparably and indissolubly united ; and
that the Irish Parliament was perfectly
and totally independent of the British
Parliament.

The first position was their security ;
the second was their freedom ; and when
gentlemen talked any other language than
that, they either tended to the separation
of the crowns, or to the subjugation of
their Parliament ; they invaded either
their security or their liberty ; in fact,
the only security of their liberty was their
connection with Great Britain, and gen-
tlemen who risked breaking the connec-
tion, must make up their minds to a
union. God forbid he should ever see
that day ; but if ever the day on which a
separation should be attempted should
come, he should not hesitate to embrace a
union rather than a separation.

Under the Duke of Portland’s govern-
ment the grievances of Ireland Avere stated
to be :

The alarming usurpation of the British
Parliament ;

A perpetual mutiny bill ;

And the powers assumed by the privy
council.

These grievances were redressed, and in
redressing them they passed a law repeal-
ing part of Poynings’. By their new law
they enacted, that all bills, which should

pass the two Houses in Ireland, should be
certified into England, and returned under
the great seal of England, without any
addition, diminution, or alteration what-
soever, should pass into laAV, and no other.
By this they made the great seal of Eng-
land essentially and indispensably neces-
sary on the passing of laws in Ireland :
they could pass no act without first certi-
fying it into England, and having it
returned under the great seal in that
kingdom, insomuch that Avere the King
of England and Ireland to come in per-
son, and to reside in Ireland, he could
not pass a bill Avithout its being first
certified to his regent in England, Avho
must return it under the seal of that
kingdom before his majesty could eA^en
in person assent to it. That if the
House should by force of an address,
upon the instant, and Avithout any com-
munication with England, invest a regent
with powers undefined, when the moment
of reflection came, it would startle the
boldest adventurers in England ; and then
he reminded gentlemen of the language
they held Avith England in the day they
asserted their freedom : “ Perpetual con-
nection ; common fortune ; Ave will rise
or fall wfith England ; Ave Avill share her
liberty, and we will share her fate.” Did
gentlemen recollect the arguments used in
England to justify the fourth proposition
of the commercial treaty ? Ireland, said
they, having a Parliament of her oAvn,
may think fit to carry on a commerce, and
regulate her trade by laAvs different from,
perhaps contradictory to, the laws of
Great Britain. Hoav Avell founded that
observation Avas, they Avould prove, if
they seized the first opportunity that
offered of differing from Great Britain on
a great imperial question ; certainly if it
be the scheme to differ on all imperial
questions, and if that be abetted by men
of great authority, they meant to drive
them to a union, and the method they took
was certainly more effectual to SAveep
aAvay opposition, than if all the sluices of
corruption AA^ere opened together, and
deluged the country’s representatives : for
it Avas certain nothing less than the alter-
native of separation could ever force a
union.

Suppose the prince did not accept the
regency in England ; suppose their ad-
dress should reach him before he Avas
actually invested Avith royal poAvers in
England, in what situation would you put
him ? They would call on him, in defi-
ance of two acts of Parliament, Avhich
made the croAvns inseparable, to dethrone
the king his father. They would call
upon him to do an act now, at which

17G

HISTORY OF IRELA^’D.

hereafter his nature -would revolt. They
Avere false friends of the Prince of Wales.
Avho should advise him to receive an ad-
dress, that might give him cause to curse
the hand which presented it. He knew
that liberties indecent in the extreme had
been taken with the name of that august
personage. He knew it had been Avhis-
pered that every man who should vote
against the address would be considered
as voting against him and treating him
Axith disrespect ; but if any man had had
the guilt and folly to poison his mind Avith
such an insinuation, he trusted to his good
sense to distinguish his friends ; he Avould
trust to his good sense to determine
Avhether they Avere his friends Avho Avished
to guard the imperial rights of the British
croAvn, or they Avho Avould stake them
upon the momentary and impotent tri-
umph of an English party. What matter
to the prince AAhether he received royal
authority by bill or by address ? Was
there a man avIio Avould presume to libel
him, and to assert that the success of that
measure Avould be a triumph to him ?

There Avas a feature in the proceeding
Avhich, independent of every other objec-
tion to it, did in his mind make it highly
reprehensible, and that Avas, that he con-
sidered it as a formal appeal from the
Parliament of England to that of Ireland.
Inspecting the parties avIio made that
appeal, he should say nothing; but al-
though there might be much dignity on
their part in recehdng the appeal, he
could not see any strong symptoms of
Avisdom in it, because by so doing he
should conceive Ave must inevitably soav
the seeds of jealousy and disunion betAveen
the Parliaments of the tAvo countries ; and
though he did not by any means desire of
the Parliament of that country implicitly
to folloAv the Parliament of England, he
should suppose it rather a Avise maxim for
Ireland ahvays to concur Avith the Parlia-
ment of Great Britain, unless for very
strong reasons indeed they Avere obliged
to differ from it. If it Avere to be a point
of Irish dignity to differ Avith the Parlia-
ment of England to shoAV their independ-
ence, he very much feared that sober men
in that country Avho had estates to lose
Avould soon become sick of independence.
The fact Avas that, constituted as it AA'as,
the Government of that country never
could go on unless they folloAved Great
Britain implicitly in all regulations of
imperial policy. The independence of
their Parliament Avas their freedom ; their
dependence on the croAvn of England Avas
their security for their freedom ; and
gentlemen avIio professed themselves that
night advocates for the independence of

the Irish croAvn Avere adAmcates for its
separation from England.

They should agree Avith England in
three points — one king, one laAv, one re-
ligion ; they should keep these great
objects steadily in AueAv, and act like
Avise men. If they made the Prince of
Wales their regent, and granted him the
plenitude of poAver, in God’s name let it
be done by bill, otherAvise be saAv such
danger that he deprecated the measure
proposed. He called upon the country
gentlemen of Ireland, that that was not
a time to think of every tAvopenny griev-
ance, every paltry disappointment sus-
tained at the Castle of Dublin ; if any
man had been aggrieved by the viceroy,
and chose to compose a philippic on the
occasion, let him gh^e it on the debate of
a turnpike bill, Avhere it Avould not be so
disgraceful to the man AA'ho uttered it, and
to those Avho Avould not listen to him, as
it Avould be on the present occasion.

On the 17th the address Avas agreed
upon by both Houses. Its principal
clause Avas in these words : —

“ We therefore beg leave humbly to
request that your royal highness Avill be
pleased to take upon you the government
of this realm during the continuation of
his majesty’s present indisposition, and
no longer ; and under the style and title
of Prince Regent of Ireland, in the name
and on behalf of his majesty, to exercise
and administer, according to the laAvs and
constitution of this kingdom, all regal
poAvers, jurisdiction, and prerogatives to
the croAvn and government thereof belong-
ing.”

On the 19th both Houses Avaited on the
lord-lieutenant, requesting him to trans-
mit it to the prince. He refused to do
so. On the day folloAving, Mr. Grattan
moved in the House, “ that his excellency
the lord-lieutenant liaA'ing thought proper
to decline to transmit to his Royal High-
ness George, Prince of Wales, the address
of both Houses of Parliament, a com-
petent number of members be appointed
by this House to present the said address
to his royal highness.”

This Avas carried by a large majority,
Avas sent up to the Lords, Avho concurred,
and named the Duke of Leinster and the
Earl of Charlemont to accompany the
members of the other House Avho should
be appointed to join them in presenting
the address.

IMr. Grattan then moved, “that it be
Resolved, That his excellency the lord-
lieutenant’s ansAver to both Houses of
Parliament, requesting him to transmit
their address to his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, is ill advised, contains

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

177

an unwarrantable and unconstitutional
censure on the proceedings of both Houses
of Parliament, and attempts to question
the undoubted rights and privileges of the
Lords spiritual and temporal and Com-
mons of Ireland.”

On the 25th of February, the committee
of the two Houses of Parliament having
arrived in London, proceeded to Carlton
House and presented the address. They
■were most graciously received, but two
days before the king had recovered from
his malady. It was thus unnecessary for
the prince either to accept or reject the
offer made to him by the Irish Parlia-
ment. He congratulated them on the
happy change in his majesty’s health, and
assured them of the “ gratitude and affec-
to the loyal and generous people of Ire-
land which he felt indelibly imprinted on
his heart.” This dangerous dispute was
thus ended for that time. Its dangers
were twofold. First, the prince might
have refused the regency with limited
powers ; in that case the English Parlia-
ment would certainly have made the queen
regent, and the prince might have accepted
the Irish regency with unlimited powers ;
there would then have been two regents,
and two separate kingdoms. Secondly,
the prince might have accepted the re-
gency precisely on the terms offered him
in each country ; he would then have been
a regent with limited powers in England,
and with full royal prerogative in Ireland,
unable to create a peer in England, but
with power to swamp the House with new
peerages in Ireland ; unable to reward his
friends with certain grants, pensions, and
offices in England, but able to quarter
them all upon the revenue of Ireland.
The peril of such a condition of things
was fully appreciated, both by Mr. Pitt
and by his able coadjutor in Ireland, Mr.
Fitzgibbon. They drew from it an argu-
ment for the total annihilation of Ireland
by a legislative union. Others who watched
events with equal attention, found in it a
still sounder argument for total separa-
tion.

CHAl’TER XXIV.

1789.

Unpopularity of Buckingham. — Formation of an
Irish character. — Efforts of Patriots in Parlia-
ment.— All in vain. — Purchasing votes. — Corrup-
tion.— Whig Club. — Lord Clare on Whig Club. —
Buckingham leaves Irelaud. — Pension List. — Peep-
of-Day Boys and Defenders. — Westmoreland,
Viceroy. — Unavailing efforts against corruption.
—Material prosperity.— King William’s Birthday.
— French Revolution.

Ireland may possibly have had worse
viceroys than the Marquis of Bucking-

JI

ham ; but scarcely one so intensely un-
popular. He was parsimonious and ex-
travagant— that is, he saved pennies, and
squandered thousands of pounds ; yet did
not squander them on the right persons.
He talked economy and practised the
most reckless profusion, yet in an under-
hand, indirect manner, which made him
no friends and many enemies. In manner
he was extremely reserved, whether from
pride or from a natural coldness of dispo-
sition. In short, he was in every way
unsuited to the Irish temperament : for
there had lately been formed gradually a
marked Irish character, even amongst the
Protestant colonists before the era of In-
dependence, and still more notably since
that time. Gentlemen born in this conn-
try, and all whose interests and associa-
tions were here, no longer called them-
selves Englishmen born in Ireland, as
Swift had clone. The same powerful assi-
milating influence which had formerly
made the Xorman settlers, Geraldines
and De Burghs “ more Irish than the
Irish” after two or three generations, had
now also acted more or less upon the very
Cromwellians and Williamites ; and there
vns recognisable in the -whole character
and bearing even of the Protestants a
certain dash of that generosity, levity,
impetuosity, and recklessness which have
marked the Celtic race since the begin-
ning. They were capable of the most
outrageous depravity and of the highest
honour and rectitude ; of the most inso-
lent, ostentatious venality and corruption,
as -well as of the noblest, proudest inde-
pendence. The formation of this modern
composite Irish character is of course
attributable to the gradual amalgamation
of the privileged Protestant colonists with
the converted Irish, who had from time to
time conformed to the established church,
to save their estates, or to possess them-
selves of the property of non-conforming
neighbours. Tliis was a large and in-
creasing element in the Protestant colony
ever since the time of Elizabeth ; and of
such families came the Currans, Dalys,
Doyles, Conollys, as well as the higher
names O’Neil, O’Brien, Burke, Roche,
Fitzpatrick. The ancesters of these
families, in abandoning their Catholic
faith, could not let out all their Celtic
blood, and that blood permeated the whole
mass of the population, and often broke
out and showed its origin, even in men
partly of English descent, or at least of
English names. Grattan, for example, in
the character of his intellect and tempera-
ment, was as purely Celtic as Curran him-
self. In truth it had become very difficult
to determine the ethnological distinction

178

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

between the inhabitants of this island ;
and surnames had long ceased to be a safe
guide : because ever since the “ Statutes
of Kilkenny ” in the 15th century, thou-
sands of Irish families, especially of those
residing near or in the English Pale, had
changed their names in obedience to those
statutes, that they might have the benefit
of the English law in their dealings with
the people of the Pale. They had assumed
surnames, as prescribed by the statute,
either from some trade or calling, as
IMiller, Taylor, Smith, — or from some
place., as Trim, Slane, Galway, — or from
some colour, as Gray, Green, White,
Brown. Gradually their original clan-
names were lost ; and it soon became
their interest to keep up no tradition even
of their Irish descent. Of one of the
families in this category, undoubtedly
came Oliver Goldsmith, whose intensely
Irish nature is a much surer guide to his
origin than the trade-surname of Gold-
smith adopted under the statute.

It has been said that surnames were no
sure guide to origin ; but in one direction
surnames were, and are, nearly infallible :
— a Celtic surname is a sure indication of
Celtic blood, because nobody ever had any
interest in assuming or retaining such a
patronymic, all the interests and tempta-
tions being the other way. But an English
surname is no indication at all of English
descent, because for several centuries — first
under the Statutes of Kilkenny, after-
wards under the more grievous pressure
of the Penal Code, all possible worldly
inducements were held out to Irishmen to
take English names, and forget their
own.*

From so large a mingling of the Celtic
element, even in the exclusive Protestant
colony, had resulted the very marked
Irish character which was noticed, though
not with complacency, by English writers
of that period ; and to this character the
cold, dry, and narrow Marquis of Buck-
ingham was altogether abhorrent. During
the agitation of the regency question, he
had succeeded in creating two new offices
of great emolument — one by the separa-
tion of the excise and revenue board, which
provided a place for a Beresford ; another
by appointing an additional commissioner
to the Stamp-Office. “ About this time
also,” as Mr. Plowden says maliciously,

* It -would be a curious study to trace the historj^
of Irish family names. For the first three centuries
after the Norman invasion under Henry II., the
movement was quite in an opposite direction, a.nd
He Burjrhs became Mac Williams, De Berming-
hams, Mac Feorais, the Fitzurses, Mac Mahons;
and Norman barons became chiefs of clans, forgot
both French and English, rode without stirrups,
and kept the upper lip unshaven.

“his excellency found it necessary to re-
store to the officers in barracks their
wonted allowance of firing which, in a
former fit of subaltern economy, he had
stopped from them. This pitiful stoppage
had been laid on to the great discontent
of the army, and being very ungraciously
removed, the alleviation was received
without gratitude.” Mr Grattan, in a
debate on this administration, says —

“ His great objection to the Marquis
of Buckingham was not merely that he
had been a jobber, but a jobber in a mask.
His objection was not merely that his ad-
ministration had been expensive, but that
his expenses were accompanied with
hypocrisy ; it was the affectation of
economy, attended with a great deal of
good, comfortable, substantial jobbing for
himself and his friends. That led to
another measure of the Marquis of Buck-
ingham which was the least ceremonious,
and the most sordid and scandalous act
of self-interest, attended with the sacrifice
of all public decorum ; he meant the dis-
posal of the reversion of the place of the
chief remembrancer to his brother, one of
the best, if not the very best, office in the
kingdom, given in reversion to an ab-
sentee with a great patronage, and a com-
pensation annexed. That most sordid
and shameless act was committed exactly
about the time when the kingdom was
charged with great pensions for the bring-
ing home, as it was termed, absentee em-
ployments. That bringing home absentee
employments was a monstrous job ; the
kingdom paid the value of the employ-
ment, and perhaps more; she paid the
value of the tax also. The pensioner so
paid was then suffered to sell both to a
resident who was free from the tax ; he
Avas then permitted to substitute neAv and
young lives in the place of his own, and
then permitted to make a new account
against the country, and to receive a
further compensation, which he Avas suf-
fered in the same manner to dispose of.”
It Avas undoubtedly in part OA\ing to
the excessiA'e unpopularity of this vice-
roy that the short remainder of his govern-
ment Avas so little satisfactory to himself
and his employers in London, and that the
Patriots Avere able to gain some trifiiug
advantages ; not indeed to such an extent
as to accomplish a single reform or abate
a single abuse, but at least to shake the
regular venal parliamentary majorities
and alarm the GoA^ernment. As the lato
gloomy prospect of a change in the Irish
administration had driven many gentle-
men to the opposition benches, Mr. Grat-
tan Avas Avilling to avail himself of the
earliest fruits of their conversion ; accord-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

179

ingly, on the 3rd of March, 1789, he offered
to the House a resolution which he thought
absolutely necessary from a transaction
which had lately taken place. He thought
it necessary to call the attention of the
House to certain principles which the
gentlemen, with whom he had generally
the honour to coincide, considered as the
indispensable condition without which no
government could expect their support,
and which the present Government had
resisted.

The first was a reform of the police.
At present the institution could only be
considered as a scheme of patronage to
the Castle, and corruption to the city — a
scheme Avhich had failed to answer the
end of preserving public peace, but had
fully succeeded in extending the influence
of the Castle.

Another principle much desired, was to
restrain the abuse of pensions by a bill
similar to that of Great Britain. That
principle, he said, Lord Buckingham had
resisted, and his resistance to it was one
great cause of his opposing his Govern-
ment. To this he would add another
principle, the restraining revenue oflicers
from voting at elections : this, he ob-
served, was a principle of the British
Parliament, and it Avas certainly more
necessary in Ireland, from what had
lately taken place, where, by a certain
union of family interests, counties had
become boroughs, and those boroughs had
become private property.

But the principle to which he begged to
call the immediate attention of the House
was, that of preventing the great offices
of the state from being given to absen-
tees : that was a principle admitted by all
to be founded in national right, purchased
by liberal compensation, and every de-
parture from it must be considered as a
slight to the nobility and gentry of Ire-
land, who certainly were better entitled
to the places of honour and trust in their
own country, than any absentee could
possibly be ; but besides the slight shown
to the nobility and gentry of Ireland, by
bestowing places of honour, of profit, and
of trust on absentees, the draft of money
from this country, the institution of depu-
ties (a second establishment unnecessary,
were the principals to reside), the double
influence arising from this raised the
abuse into an enormous grievance. Mr.
Grattan concluded Avith a motion to con-
demn this last practice.

A very Avarm debate ensued, in Avhich
Mr. Corry and some other gentlemen
admitted the principle of the resolution,
although they opposed its passing, because
it Avas a censure on the Marquis of

Buckingham. To get rid of the question,
an adjournment was moved and carried
by a majority of 115 against 106. Thus
early had the old majority began to fall
into their former ranks. Still the supe-
riority of votes bore no proportion to 200
and up Avar ds, of Avhich the former full
majorities consisted. Mr. Grattan, ac-
cordingly, on the folloAving day (Ith of
March) moved for leave to bring in a hill
for the better securing the freedom of election
for members to serve in Parliament^ by dis~
abling certain officers employed in the collec-
tion or management of his majesty's revenue
from giving their votes at such election.

But none of the measures proposed by
Mr. Grattan could be carried in that
House. In fact the deserting members of
the majority Avere soon Avhipped back into
their ranks : for on the 14th of March the
lord-lieutenant made a speech to both
Houses, officially informing them of the
full recoA'ery of the king. It Avas imme-
diately apparent that Mr. Pitt AA^as again
supreme ; and it was even intimated very
plainly that the members of either House
Avho had concurred in the address to the
prince, or Avho had voted for a censure on
the conduct of the marquis, should be
made to repent of their votes.

The House haAung by this time been
nearly marshalled into their former ranks,
Mr. Grattan thought it useless to divide
them on the second reading of the place
bill, on the 30th of April ; it Avas nega-
tived Avithout a diA’ision. The only sub-
ject particularly interesting to the history
of Ireland AALich came before Parliament
during the remainder of that session, was
the subject of tithes ; Mr. Grattan haAung
presented to the House, according to
order, a bill to appoint commissioners for
the purpose of inquiring into the state of
tithes in the different provinces of that
kingdom, and to report a plan for ascer-
taining the same : he folloAved up his
motion Avith a very elaborate, instructive,
and eloquent speech upon this important
national object. The House adjourned
from the 8th to the 25th of May, on Avhich
day the lord-lieutenant prorogued the
Parliament, and made a speech of a gene-
ral nature, Avithout a Avord of reference to
any of the extraordinary circumstances of
the session.

The administration, alarmed by the
late symptoms of disaffection, and by the
rencAved combination of the poAA'erful
aristocratic houses, as exhibited in the
proceedings on that regency question,
noAv set itself deliberately to purchase
back votes in detail, and again to
check the Irish oligarchical influence.
It has been already mentioned, in the

180

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

account of Lord Townshend’s adminis-
tration, that he, at a very heavy
expense to the nation, broke up an
aristocracy ■which before his time had
monopolised the -whole po-wer of the
Commons, and regularly bargained for
terms with every new representative for
managing the House of Commons. Mr.
Fitzgibbon (and no man knew better) now
admitted that this manoeuvre cost the nation
upwards o f half a million ; that is, that he
had paid or granted so much to purchase
that majority in Parliament by which he
governed to the end of his administration.

Mr. Grattan, some years afterwards,
commenting on this declaration of Fitz-
gibbon’s, and the astonishing scene of
corruption which followed it, broke out
in this fierce language— “ Half a million,
or more, was expended some years ago to
break an opposition ; the same, or a greater
sum, may be necessary now; so said the
principal servant of the crown. The
House heard him ; I heard him ; he said
it, standing on his legs, to an astonished
and an indignant nation, and he said it in
the most extensive sense of bribery and
corruption. The threat was proceeded on ;
the peerage was sold ; the caitiffs of cor-
ruption were everywhere — in the lobby,
in the street, on the steps, and at the
door of every parliamentary leader, Avhose
thresholds were worn by the members of
the then administration, offering titles to
some, amnesty to others, and corruption
to all.”

Indeed no bounds were now set, either
to the corruption or to the proscription.
The Government kept no measures Avith
its enemies, and had nothing to refuse to
its friends. l\Ir. Fitzgibbon, the attorney-
general, and real governor of the country,
Avas a man as audacious, as resolute, and
nearly as eloquent as Grattan himself.
It is impossible to deny to the man, on
this and on subsequent occasions, a certain
tribute of admiration for his potent Avill
and fiery manhood, and all the credit
which may be supposed due to a bold,
outspoken, insolent defiance and disdain
of every sentiment of public conscience.
Under his advice and superintendence,
market-overt Avas held for votes and
influence ; prices of boroughs, and of
parts of boroughs, of A'otes, titles,
and peerages A\-ere brought to a regular
tariff. Not a peerage, not an honour, nor
a place nor pension was disposed of, but
expressly for engagements of support in
Parliament; and every little office or
emolument that could be resumed by
Government Avas granted upon a neAv
bargain for future services. But this Avas
not enough ; proscription of enemies Avas

to go hand in hand with reAvard of service.
It mattered not that, in response to the
atrocious threat of punishing those Avho
had opposed the Government, the famous
“ Round Robin ” Avas signed by the lead-
ing peers and most illustrious commoners
of Ireland, denouncing this attempt at
intimidation and coercion. It Avas signed
by the Duke of Leinster, the Archbishop
of Tuam, and eighteen peers, as Avell as
by Grattan, Conolly, Curran, the Pouson-
bys, O’Neill, Charles Francis Sheridan,
Langrishe, Ogle, Daly, and many others,
and declared that any such proscription
Avas an attack on the independence of
Parliament, and Avas in itself sufficient
ground for relentless opposition against
any government. The bold attorney-
general Avas not to be intimidated by this ;
the Duke of Leinster himself, Avho held
an office of high rank, Avas fortliAvith dis-
missed ; Mr. Fitzherbert, IMr. George
Ponsonby, the Earl of Shannon, and a
dozen other high officials avIio had sup-
ported the regency of the Prince of Wales,
Avere unceremoniously treated in like
manner. At the same time, the offices
Avere gh'eu, or rather sold, to others for
past or future service ; and Fitzgibbon
himself, avIio had indeed earned, and avIio
Avas yet to earn, all the favours Avhich the
British Government can heap on one man,
Avas made Lord Chancellor. Good Avork-
ing majorities Avere noAv secure, and the
king’s business ” Avas to be done in future
Avithout fail and AAfith a high hand.

It seems very strange uoav, that Mr.
Grattan and his friends should not have
perceived the utter failure and futility of
their great and famous achievement of
’82 for any practical purpose in checking
the deadly domination of England. It
is strange that he in particular, avIio
had alAvays avoAved himself in faA-^our of
full emancipation to the Catholics, did
not at last come to the conclusion that
the only hope of the country lay, not
in Parliament, but in preparation for
armed resistance by a united nation. In
short, the Avonder is, that it Avas not
Grattan himself Avho invented the asso-
ciation of United Irishmen. He, Avith his
poAverful political folloAviug, could have
given to that organisation a consistency
and a poAver such as it neA^er possessed,
and might have made of Ninety-eight a
greater Eighty-tA\m. But, in fact, he
shunned all extra-parliamentary action,
and denounced the United Irish to the
last. He Avas so proud of the achieve-
i ment of Eighty-two that he never could
j be brought to see its imperfection. Be-
I sides, there groAvs up in members of Par-
I liament, after some years’ habit of Avork-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

181

ing in that body, a kind of superstitious
reverence for it ; an unwillingness to
acknowledge any political vitality out-of-
doors, and a morbid idea that the eyes of
the universe are upon that House, or at
least ought to be. Here he stood, after
eight years of “ independence,” confront-
ing an independent Parliament, of whom
one hundred and four were bribed as
placemen or pensioners, and about a hun-
dred and twenty more owned by proprie-
tors of boroughs, vainly fulminating his
indignant protests against corruption — all
his efforts to reform any abuse whatever,
totally defeated— his Volunteers well got
rid of, and succeeded by a militia under
immediate control of the crown, and a
police force in the metropolis to make sure
that no popular demonstrations should
ever again attempt to overawe that “• in-
dependent Parliament ; ” and yet he could
not think of admitting the only rational
conclusion — that the united people should
be organised to take the government out
of hands so incompetent or so vile.

But although the Patriotic party did
not go the length of revolutionary pro-
jects, they felt the necessity of combining
and organising their parliamentary forces.
The “ Bound Robin ” was the parent of
the “ Whig Club.” The leaders of oppo-
sition had found it advisable, in order to
consolidate their force into a common
centre of union, to establish a new politi-
cal society under the denomination of the
Whig Club ; an institution highly obnoxi-
ous to the Castle — they adopted the same
principles, Avere clad in the same uniform
of blue and buff, and professedly acted in
concert with the Whig Club of England.
At the head of this club Avere the Duke of
Leinster, the Earl of Charlemont, Mr.
Conolly, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Eorbes, both
the Messieurs Ponsonby, Mr. Curran, and
a number of leading members of opposi-
tion in both Houses. It AA^as a rendezvous
and round of cabinet dinners for the oppo-
sition. Here Avere planned and arranged
all the measures for attack on the minis •
try. Each member had his measure or
his question in turn ; the plans of debate
and manoeuvre Avere preconcerted, and to
each Avas assigned that share in the attack
which he Avas most competent to perform.
This club, aided by some popular news-
papers, announced its days of dining, pro-
claimed its sentiments in the shape of
resolutions, and enforced them in the
press by articles and paragraphs. Some
men, afterwards Avell knoAvn as United
Irishmen, became members of the Whig
Club ; especially Archibald Hamilton
Rowan, a gentleman of property in the
county of DoAvn, and James Napper

Tandy, the Volunteer Artillery com-
mander, who was admitted by acclama-
tion. Fitzgibbon (Earl of Clare), in his
celebrated speech for the Union— Avhich
is the most valuable historic document
concerning the events of his day (on the
side of plunder, corruption, and English
domination) — thus, Avith vindictive sar-
casm, speaks of the buff-and-blue club : —
“ The better to effectuate the great na-
tional objects of a limitation of the pen-
sion list, an exclusion of pensioners from
the House of Commons, a restriction of
placemen Avho should sit there, and a
responsibility for the receipt and issue of
the public treasury, a Whig Club Avas an-
nounced in a manifesto, signed and coun-
tersigned, charging the British Govern-
ment Avith a deliberate and systematic
intention of sapping the liberties and sub-
verting the Parliament of Ireland. All
persons of congenial character and senti-
ment Avere invited to range under the
Whig banner, for the establishment and
protection of the Irish constitution, on the
model of the Revolution of 1688 ; and
under this banner Avas ranged such a
motley collection of congenial charac-
ters, as neA^er before Avere assembled
for the reformation of the state. Mr.
Napper Tandy Avas received by accla-
mation, as a statesman too important
and illustrious to be committed to the
hazard of a ballot. Mr. Hamilton RoAA^an
also repaired to the Whig banner. Un-
fortunately, the political career of these
gentlemen has been arrested ; Mr. Tandy’s
by an attainder of felony, and an attainder
of treason ; Mr. Hamilton RoAvan’s by an
attainder of treason. The Whig secre-
tary, if he does not stand in the same
predicament, is noAv a prisoner at the
mercy of the croAvn, on his OAvn admission
of his treason ; and if I do not mistake,
the Avhole society of Irish Whigs have
been admitted, ad eundem, by their Whig-
brethren of England. In the fury of po-
litical resentment, some noblemen and
gentlemen of the first rank in this coun-
try stooped to associate with the refuse of
the community, men AAdiose principles
they held in abhorrence, and whose man-
ners and deportment must abvays haA’e
excited their disgust.”

There Avas public thanksgiving in the
churches of Dublin for the king’s recoA^-
ery : and in the Catholic chapel of Francis
Street a solemn high mass was performed
“ Avith a neAv grand Te Deurn composed on
the occasion by Giordani. The Catholics
Avere still unrecognised by the laAv, as
citizens or members of civil society, and
existed only ‘ by connivance ; ’ but some
Catholic writers tell us Avith complacency,

182

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

as a happy instance of the increasing
liberality of the times, that several of the
first Protestant nobility and gentry as-
sisted at this mass. Plowden says, ‘ So
illustrious an assemblage had never met
in a Catholic place of worship in that
kingdom since the Reformation. Besides
the principal part of their own nobility
and gentry, there were present on the
occasion the Duke of Leinster, the Earls
and Countesses of Belvedere, Arran, and
Portarlington, Countesses of Carhampton
and Ely, Lords Tyrone, Valentia, and
Delvin, Mr. 1). La Touche and family,
jNIr. Grattan, Major Doyle, i\Irs. Jeffries,
]\Irs. Trant, and several other persons of
the first distinction.’ ”

In the month of June of this year the
jNIarquis of Buckingham went to Cork,
stayed for a day at the villa of Mr. Lee at
Black Rock, and from thence quietly em-
barked for England. He never returned ;
and it was observed by Mr. O'Xeill in the
House of Commons “ that if he had not
taken a back- stairs departure from the
kingdom, he would have been greeted on
his retreat in a very different manner
from what he had been on his arrival.”
Of the course of this bad viceroy’s go-
vernment we find no better summary than
that given by Mr. Grattan in a speech
delivered while Lord Buckingham still
sat in Dublin Castle.

This was the man ; you remember his
entry into the capital, trampling on the
hearse of the Duke of Rutland, and seated
on a triumphal car, drawn by piiblic cre-
dulity ; on one side fallacious hope, and
on the other many-mouthed profession ; a
figure with two faces, one turned to the
treasury, and the other presented to the
people ; and with a double tongue, speak-
ing contradictory languages.

This minister alights ; justice looks
up to him with empty hopes, and pecula-
tion faints with idle alarms ; he finds the
city a prey to an unconstitutional police
— he continues it ; he finds the country
overburdened with a shameful pension
list— he increases it ; he finds the House
of Commons swarming with placemen —
he multiplies them ; he finds the salary
of the secretary increased to prevent a
pension — he grants a pension ; he finds
the kingdom drained by absentee employ-
ments, and by compensations to buy them
home — he gives the best reversion in the
country to an absentee, his brother; he
finds the Government at different times
had disgraced itself by creating sinecures
to gratify corrupt affection — he makes
two commissioners of the rolls, and gives
one of them to another brother ; he finds
the second council to the commissioners

put down because useless — he revives it ;
he finds the boards of accounts and stamps
annexed by public compact — he divides
them ; he finds the boards of customs
and excise united by public compact— he
divides them ; he finds three resolutions,
declaring that seven commissioners are
sufficient — he makes nine , he finds the
country has suffered by some peculations
in the ordnance — he increases the salaries
of offices, and gives the places to members
of Parliament.”

Before dismissing the Marquis of
Buckingham and his viceroyalty, it is
right to add that during his government
the pension list, already enormous, was
increased by new pensions to the amount
of <£13,000 a year.’^ It was a good argu-
ment, morally, for reform, but a still
better argument, materially and practi-
cally, against reform. Parliamentary
patriots might have seen that they were
moving in a vicious circle — the more irre-
sistible, logical, and argumentative were
their assaults on the citadel of corruption,
the ]uore impregnable became that cita-
del, by means of the very corruption
itself ; and it must be admitted that
although the Marquis of Buckingham
absconded, like any defaulting bank offi-
cer from Ireland, he left British policy in
full, successful, and triumphant operation.

On the 30th of June, 1780, Eitzgibbon,

* This being mere matter of account, says !Mr.
Gratian, I extract it from the papers laid before
Parliament. Appendix to the 13th vol. Journ. Com.,
p. 271.

A list of all Pensions placed on the Civil Establish-
ment during the period of the Marquis of Bucking-
ham's Administration, with an account of the total

Amount thereof.

Fitzherbert Richards, Esq £400

Janies Cavendish, Esq loO

Harriet Cavendish 1-50

Lionel, Lord Viscount Strangford 400

Robert Thornton, Esq 300

Right Honourable Thomas Orde 1700

Duke of Gloucester 4000

Georgina, Viscountess Boyne 500

Lady Catherine Marlay 300

Honourable Rose Browne 300

Walter Taylor 300

Francis dTvernois 300

David Jebb, Esq 300

Lady Catherine Toole 200

Thomas Coughlan, additional 200

■\Villiam, Viscount Cheti\'j'iid, additional 200

Charles, Viscount Ranelagh, and Sarah, Vis-
countess Ranelagh, his wife, and survivor 400
Lucia Agar, Viscountess Chfden, and Emily

Anne Agar, her daughter, and survivor... 300

Sir Henry ISIannix, Bart 500

Sir Richard Johnstone, Bart., aud William

Johnstone, Esq., his son, and survivor.... SOO

Sarah Hernon 70

Elizabeth Hernon 70

Henry Loftus, Esq 300

Diana Loftus 300

William Colville, Esq 000

£13,040

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

183

the new lord chancellor, and Mr. Foster,
the Speaker of the House, were sworn in
lords-justices. The Marquis of Bucking-
ham resigned, and was succeeded by the
Earl of Westmoreland.

In the last year of the Buckingham
administration, the violent feuds of the
Peep-of-Day-Boys and Defenders had
taken almost the proportions of a small
civil war. Many of the Protestant land-
lords in Armagh and Tyrone Counties
diligently fomented and embittered these
disputes, “ with the diabolical purpose,”
says Mr. Plowden, “of breaking uj) the
union of the Protestants and Catholics
which had been effected by serving to-
gether as Volunteers, and was one of the
effects of that system which the Govern-
ment appeared most to dread. Reports
were industriously set afloat, and greedily
•credited by most Protestants of the county
•of Armagh, who long had been pre-emi-
nent amongst their brethren for their
5:ealous antipathy to Popery, that if
Catholics who had obtained arms, and
learned the use of them during the war,
were permitted to retain them, they would
soon be used in erecting Popery on the
ruins of the Protestant religion. The
li)efenders had long and frequently com-
, plained that all the efforts to procure
legal redress against the outrages com-
mitted upon them by the Peep-of-Day
Boys were unavailing ; that their oppres-
sors appeared to be rather countenanced
than checked by the civil power, and that
the necessity of the case had driven them
into counter-combinations to defend their
lives and properties against these uncon-
trolled marauders. Whilst these petty
but fatal internal hostilites were confined
chiefly to the county of Armagh, it ap-
pears that the Defenders had generally
remained passive, according to their first
institution and ajjpellation, and that they
only became aggressors when they after-
wards were compelled to emigrate from
their country. Their hostility was now
at its height ; Government sent down two
troops to quell them, but above fifty on
both sides had been killed in an affray
before the horse arrived. Tranquillity
lasted while the troops remained ; but it
was impossible that a large assemblage
of men void of education, prudence, or
control should long remain together with-
out mischief.”

The “ Defenders,” that is the luckless
Catholics of those northern counties
struggling only to live by their labour,
surrounded by a larger population of
insolent and ferocious Protestant farmers,
remained always, as their name imports,
.strictly on the defensive. They never

were mad enough to become “ aggressors”
at all ; and Mr. Plowden, in the passage
just cited, falls into the not unusual error
of Catholic writers who are so determined
to be impartial, that they lean to the party
which they abhor. It is right to under-
stand once for all — and we shall have but
too many occasions of illustrating the fact
— that in all the violent and bloody con-
tentions which have taken place between
the Catholics and Protestants of Ulster
from that day to the present, without any
exception, the Protestants have been the
wanton aggressors. It was with the ut-
most difficulty that Catholics could pro-
cure arms ; but they knew that their
Protestant neighbours Avere all armed
They knew also, that if there were to be
any examination into the facts before
justices of the peace, or at the assizes,
they were sure to meet a bitter, con-
temptuous hostility on the bench and in
the jury-box, and witnesses ready to swear
that a Popish funeral was a military
parade, and a faction-fight an insurrec-
tion. Therefore it was not in the nature
of things that such an oppressed race
should voluntarily seek a collision, or
should resort to violence, save in the
utmost extremity of almost despairing
resistance. It is true, also, that from the
very origin of Peep-of-Day Boys (who
afterwards ripened into Orangemen) down
to the present moment (18G7), many of
the greatest iwoprietors in Ulster, peers
and commoners have carefully stimulated
the ferocity of the ignorant Protestant
yeomanry by their own insolent behaviour
towards the oppressed people, and especi-
ally by inculcating and enlarging upon
all the dreadful details of that bloody
fable, the “Popish Massacre” of 1641.
Sir John Temple’s horrible romance was
a fifth gospel to the “Ascendency” of the
North, and was often enlarged upon, like
the other four, by clergymen in their
pulpits to show that it is the favourite
enjoyment of Papists to rip up Protestant
women Avith knives; to murder the mothers
and then put the infants to their dead
mother’s breast, and say, “ Suck, English
bastard!'' to delude men out of houses by
offers of quarter, and then to cut their
throats ; and so on. Indeed Avhen the
conscientious Dr. Curry published his
examination of the histories ci that pre-
tended massacre, his friends feared for his
life ; it AA'as held proof positive in his day
of a design to “ bring in the Pretender,”
if one presumed to deny or doubt the ter-
rible droAvning of Protestants at Porta-
down Bridge, or to question the fact of
their ghosts appearing in the river at
night breast-high in the Avater, and shriek-

184

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

ing '‘^Revenge! Revenue!” From such
historic literature as this Avere derived the
opinions formed of Catholics by Peep-of-
Day Boys, and by their Avorthy successors
the Orangemen. The baleful seeds of
hatred and iniquity, soAvn thus in the
minds of benighted Protestants by those
AA'ho ought to haA'e taught them better,
fell in congenial soil, and greAv, flourished,
and ripened, as Ave shall soon have to nar-
rate, in a harvest of bloody fruit.

The Earl of Westmoreland’s adminis-
tration AA-as precisely like that of his pre-
decessors. It Avas obsei’A'ed in Parliament
by seA'eral of the opposition members,
“ that it Avas but a continuance of the
former administration under a less un-
popular head.” Major Doyle said (10
Pari. Deb., j). 223) — “ The same measures
Avere continued by the present viceroy, as
if some malicious demon had shot into
him the spirit of his departed predecessor,
and that the Castle of Dublin Avas only
the reflected shadoAvs of the Palace of
StOAve.”

It is truly irksome to folloAv the un-
availing parliamentary struggles made by^
a few faithful Irishmen in those days ; and
the commemoration of them might Avell be
dispensed Avith, but for the pride and plea-
sure Avhich Ave cannot but feel in the knoAv-
ledge, that even in that dark day there
AA'ere some glorious intellects and noble
hearts in Ireland Avho, environed around
and almost ovenvlielmed by the deluge of
scounclrelism, yet did hold up the stan-
dard of rectitude, and call upon the
demoralised nation to folloAv that stan-
dard. It Avas the voice of one crying
in the AAulderness. We find in the
lAarliamentary debates, during the ses-
sion of 1790, the same sort of series
of motions for committees, or for re-
solutions, against corruption, against in-
crease of pensions and the like, Avith Avhich
the country Avas noAv familiar. It Avas
familiar also AAuth the uniform defeat of
all those efforts. Mr. Curran, for ex-
ample, moved, “ That a humble address
should be presented to his majesty, pray-
ing that he Avould order to be laid before
that House the i^articulars of the causes,
consideration, and representations, in con-
sequence of AA'hich the boards of stamps
and accounts had been dh'ided, Avith an
increase of salary to the officers ; also,
that .he Avould be graciously pleased to
communicate to that House the names of
the i)ersons aaEo recommended that mea-
sure.”

In his speech in support of this motion,
Curran assailed the purchased majority
Avith some of his biting and devouring
sarcasm Avhich the court so much dreaded,

and which — had Curran been purchasable
— Avould have insured him the highest
price.

“ He brought forAvard that motion,” he
said, “ not as a question of finance, not as
a question of regulation, but as a penal
inquiry, and the people Avould noAv see,
Avhether they Avere to hope for help xvithin
these walls.” He rose in an assembly of
three hundred persons, one hundred of
Avhom had places or pensions ; in an
assembly, one-third of Avhom had their
ears sealed against the complaints of the
people, and their eyes intently turned to
their OAvn interest ; he rose before the
Avhisperers of the treasury, the bargainers
and the runners of the Castle : he ad-
dressed an audience before Avhom Avas
holden forth the doctrine that the croAvn
ought to use its influence on the members
of that House.

He rose to try Avhen the sluices of cor-
ruption had been let loose upon them,
Avhether there Avere any means left to
stem that torrent.

The debate broke out into great intem-
perance on both sides : the division upon
the motion Avas 81 in support, and 111
against it.

Mr. Curran’s doubt “Avhether there Avas
hope for help Avithin those Avails,” Avas
plainly ripening into a certainty that
there Avas none.

In the same Avay Ave find the indefatig-
able Mr. Forbes again trying his place
bill and pension bill. This time he moved
for an address to the king, setting forth
the shabby details Avhich he had long
busied himself in bringing to light : — hoAv
there Avas an immense increase in the
pension list of pensions granted to mem-
bers of that House at the pleasure of the
croAvn. Hoav “an addition of £300 per
annum has been lately granted to the
salary of the custommer of Kinsale, to
commence from the 29th of September,
1789, and a further addition of £200 pay-
able on a contingency, both for the life of
the present possessor — an office Avhich has
been for years considered as useless and
obsolete, to Avhich no duty Avhatsoever is
annexed, nor any attendance required.
That an addition of £100 per annum has
been lately granted to the salary of comp-
troller of the pipe, though £53 10s has for
years been considered as an adequate
compensation for the discharge of the
duties of that office. That an addition of
£150 per annum has also been lately
granted to the barrack-master of Dublin.
That the persons to whom those additional
salaries have been granted are all members of
this House.” And so forth — things AAdiich
I the king and Mr. Pitt, his minister, kneAV

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

185

very well — which they intended — in which
they meant to persevere, and which they
called governing the country. Of course,
the address to the king was negatived by
a large majority ; the “ comptroller of the
pipe” and the custommer of Kinsale were
not likely to vote for a measure Avhich
would deprive their little families of
bread, Mr, Grattan spoke on this motion
of Forbes ; but perhaps the most notable
passage in the debate is the short nervous
speech of Mr, O’Neil, which plainly showed
that he, too, despaired of effecting any-
thing in Parliament, and foresaw another
kind of struggle, Mr, O’Neil said “he
thought it wholly unnecessary for gentle-
men on the other side to adduce a single
argument upon any question while they
had an omnipotent number of 140 to suj:)-
port them. On the subject of influence,
the denial of it, he said, was ridiculous,
as there was not a lady then sitting at tea
in Dublin who, if she Avere told that there
were 120 men in that House, composed of
placemen and pensioners, would not be
able to say how the question Avould be
decided, as well as the tellers on the
division. He said the very first act in
every session of Parliament, Avhich was the
bill of supply, went to raise the interest
for a million and a half of money for
ministers to divide amongst themselves,
I do say, and I say it prophetically,”
continued he, “ that the people will resist
it. The members of this House bear but
a small proportion to the people at large.
There are gentlemen outside these doors
of as good education and of as much
judgment of the relative duties of repre-
sentation as any man within doors, and
matters are evidently ripening, and Avill
shortly come to a crisis,” Mr, O’Neil
was right ; but he and Mr, Grattan, and
others aa4io acted Avith them, are never to
be forgiven that they did not help
matters to come to a crisis, and did not
preside over and guide that crisis Avhen it
came.

The remainder of this shameful Parlia-
ment is little worthy of commemoration,
Mr. George Ponsonby moved a resolution
against places and pensions ; defeated by
a large majority. Mr. Grattan, filled
with the same sceva indiqnatio Avhich once
gnaAved the heart of Swift, astonished the
House by a speech calling for impeach-
ment of ministers, concluding Avith this
motion, “ that a select committee be
appointed to inquire, in the most solemn
manner, whether the late or present
administration have entered into any
corrupt agreement Avith any person or
persons, to recommend such person or
persons to his majesty as fit and proper

to be by him made peers of this realm, in
consideration of such person or persons
giving certain sums of money to be laid
out in procuring the return of members
to serve in Parliament, contrary to the
rights of the people, inconsistent with the
independence of Parliament, and in viola-
tion of the fundamental law of the land.”
It Avas defeated by the usual majority;
144 against, and 82 for the motion. A feAV
days after, Mr. Grattan Avas provoked to
utter one of his audacious speeches in the
House. It Avas in one of the debates on
Mr. Forbes’ motion : — “ Sir, I have been
told it Avas said that I should have been
expelled the Commons, should have been
delivered up to the bar of the Lords for
the expressions delivered that day.

“ I Avill repeat what I said on that day ;
I said that his majesty’s ministers had sold
the peerages, for AA'hich offence they Avere
impeachable. I said they had applied the
money for the purpose of purchasing seats
in the House of Commons for the servants
or folloAA'ers of the Castle, for Avdiich
offence I said they Avere impeachable. I
said they had done this, not in one or
two, but in several instances, for Avhich
complication of offences I said his ma-
jesty’s ministers Avere impeachable as
public malefactors Avho had conspired
against the common Aveal, the independ-
ence of Parliament, and the fundamental
laAvs of the land ; and I offered and dared
them to put this matter in a course of
inquiry. I added, that I considered them
as public malefactors Avhom we Avere ready
to bring to justice. I repeat these charges
now ; and if anything more severe were
on a former occasion expressed, I beg to
be reminded of it, and I Avill again repeat
it. Why do you not expel me noAv ? Why
not send me to the bar of the Lords ?
Where is your adviser ? Going out of
the House, I shall repeat my sentiments,
that his majesty’s juinisters are guilty of
impeachable offences ; and advancing to
the bar of the Lords, I shall repeat those
sentiments ; or if the ToAver is to be ray
habitation, I Avill there meditate the im-
peachment of these ministers, and retarn,
not to capitulate, but to punish. Sir, I
think I knoAV myself well enough to say,
that, if called forth to suffer in a public
cause, I will go farther than my pro-
secutors, both in virtue and in danger.”

All similar efforts failed in the same
manner, effecting nothing but an occa-
sional opportunity of discharging a tor-
rent of indignant invective against the
solid phalanx of Castle members, equally
insensible to inA'ective, to sarcasm, to
shame, and to conscience ; and the Par-
liament was prorogued on the 5th of April,

186

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

1790 — the viceroy assuring them in his
speech from the throne, that “ he had
great pleasure in signifying his majesty’s
approbation of the zeal they had shown
for the public interest, and the dispatch
with which they had concluded the na-
tional business.” Three days after, the
Parliament was dissolved.

But although the Parliament of the
“independent” kingdom of Ireland was
in so wofully corrupt a condition, yet
we find that in material prosperity the
country continued to advance. The
population had increased very rapidly,
and it is estimated for the year 1788
at 4,040,000, an increase of a million
and a half in twenty years. This is
a sure sign of general ease and abun-
dance of the necessaries of life. The
revenue was also increasing fully in pro-
portion to the increase of people ; and the
Catholics, being now empowered to hold
longer leases, and to take mortgages on
money lent, had well improved their
limited opportunities, and were become in
all the towns an opulent and infiuential
I)orticn of the people ; yet the Catholics,
while personally they were respected, were
as a body both oppressed and insulted.
Of the four millions, they were more than
three ; yet this great mass of people, the
original and rightful owners of all the
land, were still a proscribed race, still
under the full operation of the most
•odious of the penal laws, excluded from
Parliament, from the franchise, from the
professions, from the corporations, from
the juries, from the magistracy, from all
civil and military employment. Public
ceremonials were calculated and devised
with the special design to humiliate them,
and remind them of the high national
estate from which they had fallen ; and
even in these proud days of the Volun-
teering, the anniversaries of their fatal
defeats were regularly celebrated in Dub-
lin by the high officers of state with all
possible civic and military pomp. The
The author of the “ Irish Abroad and at
Home” tells us, from his own recollec-
tions— “ King William’s birth-day (the
4th of November) was observed with great
ceremony. Within my own recollection,
and even till the period of the Union, on
each 4th of November the troops com-
posing the garrison of Dublin marched
from their respective barracks to the
Poyal Exchange, and their turning to the
right up to the Castle, and to the left to
the college, lined the streets, Cork Hill,
Dame Street, and College Green, on each
side the way.

“ At the same time, the lord-lieutenant
would be holding a levee ; a drawing-room

wound up the observances, at which the
nobility, the bishops, the members of the
House of Commons (the Speaker at their
head), the judges, the bar, the provost, vice-
provost, and fellows of Trinity College, the
lord mayor, aldermen, and other public
functionaries were present. The levee
over, the lord-lieutenant issued in his
state-carriage and with great pomp from
the Castle, passed down the line of streets
and round the statue of King William,
and tiien returned to the Castle j followed
also in carriages by the great officers of
state, the bishops, the Houses of Lords
and Commons, and those of the gentry
who had been present at the levee.”

But as the Catholics advanced in pros-
perity and increased in numbers, this
condition of inferiority in their own native
land became more and more intolerable
to them : the complete failure of the con-
stitutional “ independence ” of ’82 was
creating amongst the more rational Pro-
testants a desire of uniting themselves
with the powerful Catholic masses ; a
“ Catholic Committee ” had notv been for
some years in existence, connived at by
Government, and on the whole there was
a considerable ferment in the public mind
at the moment when, on the 14th of July,
1789, all Europe rang and shook with the
downfall of the Bastile. Within three
weeks after, on the memorable 4th of
August, feudality and privilege were
suddenly struck down and swept away :
in that most aristocratic of countries all
men became suddenly equal in one night ;
and the great French Kevolution was in
full career.

CHAPTER XXV.

1790—1791.

New election. — ^New peers. — Sale of peerages. — Mo-
tion against Police Bill. — Continual defeats of
Patriots. — Insolence of the Castle. — Progress of
French Revolution. — Horror of French principles.
— Burke. — Divisions amongst Irish Catholics. —
Wolfe Tone. — General Committee of Catholics. —
Tone goes to Belfast. — Establishes first United
Irish Club. — Dublin United Irish Club. — Parlia-
mentary Patriots avoid them. — Progress of Catholic
Committee. — Project of a Convention. — Troubles
in County Armagh.

Notwithstanding the progress which
had been made by the people in political
knowledge and spirit, stimulated by the
mighty events then going forward in
France, yet the influence of the Castle
prevented any great change in the return
of members to the new Parliament. The

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

187

dissolution took place on the 8th of April,
1790, and the new Parliament was sum-
moned to meet at Dublin on the 20th of
May, but before that time was further
prorogued to the 10th of July, when it
met for despatch of business.

Such of the constituencies as were
really free to elect, of course took care to
send to Parliament all the most prominent
reformers. Grattan, Forbes, Curran, Pon-
#onby. Lord Henry Fitzgerald, occupied
their old places on the opposition bench.
We find among the new members several
noted names. A certain young Major
Wellesley was returned for the borough
of Trim, afterwards called to high desti-
nies under the title of Duke of Welling-
ton. Jonah Barrington was member for
Tu im : he had seen the rise, and was
destined to chronicle the Kise and Fall of
the Irish Nation. Arthur O’Connor came
as member for Philipstown : his name will
appear again in this narrative. Robert
Stewart came as one of the members for
Down County ; and had an opportunity
of studying the modes of buying and
selling in that great mart of votes and
influences ; opportunities which he im-
jiroved with the zeal of a clerk in a com-
mercial house learning his business. We
shall see that he spent the season of his
apprenticeship profitably. In the mean-
time, it is interesting to record that this
gentleman sought his election, and was
returned, expressly as an avowed re-
former and patriot ; and that on the bust-
ing at Downpatrick he took the following
pledge : — “ That he would in and out of
the House, with all his ability and in-
fluence, promote the success of a bill for
amending the representation of the people ;
a bill for preventing pensioners from sit-
ting in Parliament, or such placemen as
cannot sit in the British House of Com-
mons ; a bill for limiting the number of
placemen and pensioners and the amount
of pensions ; a bill for preventing revenue
officers from voting at elections ; a bill for
rendering the servants of the crown in
Ireland responsible for the expenditure of
the public money,” etc., — in short, all the
measures of reform which were at that time
the ostensible objects of the opposition.

The purpose of convening the Parlia-
ment was to obtain a vote of credit ;
accordingly the chancellor of the exche-
quer moved for a vote of credit for
£200,000, to be applied by the lord-lieu-
tonant towards the expense of Govern-
ment.

On the 24th of the month his majesty’s
answer to the address of the Commons
was communicated to the House, which
was strongly expressive of his satisfaction

at their determination to support the
honour of his crown, and the common
interest of the empire, at that important
crisis : the Parliament was then prorogued,
and did not meet for the despatch of busi-
ness till the 20th of January, 1791. In
the autumn, Mr. Secretary Hobart went
over to England, as it was generally pre-
sumed, to concert the plan of the next
parliamentary campaign with the British
cabinet. It was also rumoured that the
Irish Government having in the widest
plenitude adopted the principles and sys-
tem of Lord Buckingham’s administra-
tion, the right honourable secretary had
also much consultation with that noble-
man. Lord Westmoreland in the mean-
time was not inattentive to the means of
acquiring popularity, the want of which
in his predecessor he felt very strongly
operating uj)on his own government. In
a country excursion for nearly nine
months he visited most of the nobility
through the kingdom : his excellency and
his lady on all solemn occasions appeared
clad in Irish manufactures ; just as in our
own day an ameliorative viceroy has
sometimes condescended to wear a “ pop-
lin waistcoat.” We are even told that
Lord Westmoreland further increased his
popularity by giving permission to repre-
sent “ The Beggar’s Opera,” which was
then a favourite of the Dublin people, but
the representation of which had been pro-
hibited in Lord Buckingham’s time.

The business of this session differed
very little from that of the last before the
dissolution. The Patriots appeared rather
to have lost, than acquired, strength by
the new election. Their number did not
at any time during the course of this ses-
sion exceed fourscore. But their resolu-
tion to press all the questions Avhich they
had brought forward in the last Parlia-
ment appeared more violently determined
than ever ; insomuch, that Mr. George
Ponsonby, in replying to Mr. Cook,
assured him that the hope he had ex-
pressed of gentlemen on his side of
the House not bringing forward those
measures which they had done for some
sessions past was a lost hope, for that
nothing but the hand of death or success
should ever induce them to give up their
pursuit. Accordingly Mr Ponsonby, on
the 3d of February, moved as usual for a
select committee to inquire into the pen-
sion list. It was got rid of by a motion
for adjournment. Then Mr. Grattan,
supported by Mr. Curran, renewed the
charge upon its practice of selling peer-
ages : it was rejected by 135 against 85.

Mr. Curran then moved the following
resolution, in which he was seconded by

188

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Mr. Grattan, viz. : “ That a committee be
appointed, consisting of members of both
Houses of Parliament who do not hold
any employment or enjoy any pension
under the crown, to inquire in the most
solemn manner, whether the late or pre-
sent administration have, directly or indi-
rectly, entered into any corrupt agree-
ment with any person or persons, to re-
commend such person or persons to his
majesty for the purpose of being created
peers of this kingdom, in consideration of
their paying certain sums of money, to be
laid out in the purchase of seats for mem-
bers to serve in Parliament, contrary to
the rights of the people, inconsistent with
the independence of Parliament, and in
direct violation of the fundamental laAvs
of the land.”

The ministerial members on all these
occasions loudly complained of the reitera-
tion of the old charges even without new
arguments to support them ; they strongly
insisted that no particular facts were
alleged, much less proved ; and that gene-
ral fame, surmise, and assertion, Avere no
grounds for parliamentary impeachments,
or any other solemn proceedings in that
House. Mr. Grattan, before ansAvering
the objections advanced against the mo-
tion, adA'erted to the general dull and
empty declamation uttered by the advo-
cates of a corrupt government against the
defenders of an injiired people.

Pour times had those advocates told
them they had brought this grievance
forth, as if grievances Avere only to be
matter of public debate Avhen they Avere
matters of novelty ; or as if grievances
Avere trading questions for a party or a
person to press, to sell, and to abandon ;
or as if they came thither to act farces to
please the appetite of the public, and did
not sit there to persevere in the redress of
grievances, pledged, as they AA'ere, and
covenanted to the people on these im-
portant subjects.

Under these continual defeats of every
generous effort to abate a single eAul or
injustice, it seems to liaA^e been some satis-
faction to the members of the opposition
to indulge at least in violent philippics.
Mr. Grattan, for instance, in making a
renewed effort against the unconstitu-
tional police system — Ministers had, he
said, resorted to a place army and a pen-
sioned magistracy — the one AA'as to give
boldness to corruption in Parliament, and
the other to giA'e the minister’s influence
patronage in the city. Their means Avere
this police establishment; the plan they
did not entirely frame, they found it. A
bill had shoAvn its face in the British
House of Commons for a moment, and

had been turned out of the doors imme-
diately ; a scaA’-enger AA'ould haA^e found it
in the streets of London ; the groping
hands of the Irish ministry picked it uj)
and made it the laAv of the land.

The motion against the police Aras nega-
tived by Avhat Mr. Grattan called the dead
majority. Next, the ojAposition tried an-
other favourite measure — to preA^ent place-
men and pensioners from haAung seats in
Parliament ; in other AA’ords, that the
“dead majority” should be turned out of
doors and deprived of their daily bread.
This measure Aras supported as usual by
Mr. Forbes, and of course by the same
arguments; there Avas nothing neAV to
say ; there AA^as the eAul visible before
them, or rather the 104 eA’ils, each Avitli
its bribe in its pocket, Avrung from the
earnings of those people AA’hose legislature
they poisoned. But the Castle members
Avere utterly disgusted Avith these thread-
bare topics; they called for something
new ; and so Mr. Mason had the cool
audacity to say, that having opposed this
bill every session for thirty years, he
Avould not AA'eary the House Avith fresh
arguments against it ; his decided opinion
Avas, that the influence of the croAvn Avas
barely sufficient to preserA^e the constitu-
tion, and to prevent it from degenerating
into the AA’orst of all possible governments,
a democracy.

Indeed, the terror of this democracy,
and the manifest peril to oligarchical
goA^ernment, both in England and in Ire-
land, arising from the thundering French
reAmlution, and its reverberations through
many millions of hearts in the tAvo islands
— these Avere the considerations that ren-
dered the supporters of Government more
sternly resolute to maintain every part of
their system as it stood. Beformers of
any abuse began about this time to be
called “ Jacobins,” and the “ Mountain ;”
and it AA’as intended for the most ribald
abuse, to charge a person Avith advocating
the Rights of Man.

Equally violent and equally unsuccess-
ful Avere the four remaining attacks made
by the gentlemen of the opposition — auz.,
Mr. Grattan’s motion for the encourage-
ment of the reclaiming of barren land ;
on the first reading of the pension bill ;
the second reading of the responsibility
bill ; and Mr. George Ponsonby’s motion
respecting fats for levying unassessed
damages upon the parties’ affidavits of
their OAvn imaginary losses.

We must noAv turn aAvay for a time
from these eloquent futilities in Parlia-
ment. It is difficult now to analyse the
strong political passion Avhich seized upon
all the public as the mighty drama of

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

189

^French Eevolution swept upon its way.
The year 1791 stimulated that passion to
the greatest height. The great theatrical
performance of the federation of all man-
kind in the Champ de Mars had taken
place on the 14th of July of the last year,
Avhen the King of France had sworn to
maintain the constitution The church
lands had been sold for the use of the
public ; Mirabeau, the great tribune, was
dead, and the last hope of conciliation
between the people and the crown died
with him. Then the great coalition of
Europe against France was formed, and
the king attempted his flight beyond the
Ehine. Everything betokened both war
and invasion coming from abroad, and the
approaching triumph at home of the Ja-
cobin Republicans, with the usual violence
and slaughter which attend such immense
changes. It was impossible to look on at
these things unmoved. Two flerce parties
were at once formed in Ireland — the one
Republican, the other anti-Gallican.

The sympathy which several of the
armed corps and other public bodies
exultingly expressed with the assertors of
civil freedom in those countries, was ob-
noxious to Government, and it became
the system of the Castle to affix a marked
stigma upon every person who counte-
nanced or spoke in favour of any measure
that bore the semblance of reform or re-
volution. Even the ardour for commemo-
rating the era of 1688 was attempted to
be damped , the word liberty always car-
ried with it suspicion, often reprobation.
In proportion to the progress of the French
revolution to those scenes which at last
outraged humanity, were some efforts in
favour of the most constitutional liberty
resisted in Parliament as attempts to. in-
troduce a system of French equality.
Such was the general panic, such the real
or assumed execration of everything that
had a tendency to democracy, that com-
paratively few of the higher orders through
the kingdom retained or avowed those
general Whig principles which, two years
before, that man was not deemed loyal
who did not profess.

Mr. Burke, by his book on the French
Revolution, published in the year 1790,
had worked a great change in the public
mind, and the few in the upper walks of
life who did not become his proselytes,
merely retaining their former principles,
w'ere astonished to find their ranks thinned
and their standard fallen.

The Catholics also could not pos-
sibly remain insensible to the great
events of the time ; but the effect
produced upon them was of a strangely
complex kind. As a grievously op-

pressed race, they could not but sym-
pathise with the oppressed peasantry and
middle classes of France as they struck
off link after link of the feudal chain ;
but, on the other hand, the Irish Catho-
lics, not like the French, had remained
deeply attached to their religion, the only
consolation they had ; and the French
“ Civil Constitution” for the clergy, and
sale of church Lands, Avere represented to
them as anti-religious, and dangerous to
faith and morals. Publications were
circulated upon the conservative tend-
encies of the Catholic religion* to ren-
der its followers loyal, peaceable, and
dutiful subjects. Pastoral instructions
were published by the Catholic bishops in
their respective dioceses in favour of loyal
subordination, and against “ French prin-
ciples.” On the other hand, the trading
Catholies in the towns, and such of the
country population as were readers of
books, were very generally indoctrinated
with sentiments of extreme liberalism.
It Avas not to be expected, they thought,
that they could be “ loyal ” to a Govern-
ment which they kneAv only by its oppres-
sions and its insults ; it was not likely
that they Avould be indignant against the
French for abolishing titJLes, nor for sell-
ing out in small farms the vast domains
of the emigrant nobles. On the whole,
therefore, a very large proportion of the
Catholics looked to the proceedings of the
French with admiration and Avith hope.
As for the Irish Dissenters, avIio Avere
much more numerous than the Protest-
ants of the established church, they Avere
Galilean and republican to a man.

Considering that the only real enemy of
Ireland, both then and ever since, A\"as the
English Government, it was very unfor-
tunate that the divisions amongst the
Catholics themselves, and the hereditary
estrangement and aversion between them
and the Presbyterians, made it next to
impossible to create a united Irish nation
with one sole bond, and one single aim,
the destruction of British government in
this island. This, hoAvever, Avas precisely
the great task undertaken by Theobald
Wolfe Tone, a young Protestant lawyer
of Dublin, of English descent by both
the father’s side and the mother’s, a gra-
duate of Trinity College, and Avho at the
time Avhen he first flung himself into the
grand revolutionary scheme of associating
the Catholics to the body of the nation,
was not personally acquainted with a
single individual of that creed. It is
needless to say that Tone had been a

* One of the most noted of these publications
was one called “The Case Stated,” by Mr. Plow-
den.

190

HISTORY OP IRELAND,

democrat from the very commencement,
that is, from the commencement of the
French revolution. In his narrative of
his own life. Tone has given so clear an
account of the dissensions which broke
up the Catholic Committee, the circum-
stances which led to his own alliance with
the Catholic body, and the first formation
of the clubs of “ United Irishmen,” that
it may here be presented in his own words,
in a slightly abridged form : —

“ The General Committee of the Catho-
lics, which, since the year 1792, has made
a distinguished feature in the politics of
Ireland, was a body composed of their
bishops, their country gentlemen, and of a
certain number of merchants and traders,
all resident in Dublin, but named by the
Catholics in the different towns corporate
to represent them. The original object of
this institution was to obtain the repeal of
a partial and oppressive tax called quar-
terage, which was levied on the Catholics
only, and the Government, which found
the committee at first a convenient instru-
ment on some occasions, connived at its
existence. So degraded was the Catholic
mind at the period of the formation of
their committee, about 1770, and long
after, that they were happy to be allowed
to go up to the Castle with an abominable
slavish address to each successive viceroy,’
of which, moreover, until the accession of
the Duke of Portland, in 1782, so little
notice was taken that his grace was the
first who condescended to give them an
answer , and, indeed, for above twenty
years, the sole business of the General
Committee was to prepare and deliver in
those records of their depression. The
effort which an honest indignation had
called forth at the time of the Volunteer
Cuiivention, in 1783, seemed to have ex-
hausted their strength, and they sunk
back into their primitive nullity. Under
this appearance of apathy, however, a new
spirit was gradually arising in the body,
owing, principally, to the exertions and
the example of one man, John Keogh, to
whose services his country, and more
especially the Catholics, are singularly
indebted. In fact, the doAvnfall of feudal
tyranny was acted in little on the theatre
of the General Committee. The influence
of their clergy and of their barons was
gradually undermined, and the third
estate, the commercial interest, rising in
wealth and power, was preparing, by de-
grees, to throw off the yoke, in the im-
posing, or, at least, the continuing of
which the leaders of the body, I mean
the prelates and aristocracy, to their dis-
grace be it spoken, were ready to concur.
Already had those leaders, acting in obe-

dience to the orders of the Government
which held them in fetters, suffered one
or two signal defeats in the committee,
owing principally to the talents and ad-
dress of John Keogh ; the parties began
to be defined, and a sturdy democracy of
new men, with bolder views and stronger
talents, soon superseded the timid coun-
sels and slavish measures of the ancient
aristocracy. Everything seemed tending
to a better order of things among the
Catholics, and an occasion soon offered to-
call the energy of their new leaders into
action.

“ The Dissenters of the North, and
more especially of the town of Belfast,
are from the genius of their religion and
from the superior diffusion of political
information among them, sincere and en-
lightened Republicans. They had ever
been foremost in the pursuit of parlia-
mentary reform, and I have already men-
tioned the early wisdom and virtue of the
town of Belfast, in proposing the emanci-
pation of the Catholics so far back as the
year 1783.

“The Catholics, on their part, were
rapidly advancing in political spirit and
information. Every month, every day, as
the revolution in France went prosper-
ously forward, added to their courage and
their force, and the hour seemed at last
arrived when, after a dreary oppression
of about one hundred years, they were
once more to appear on the political
theatre of their country. They saw the
brilliant prospect of success which events
in France opened to their view, and they
determined to avail themselves with
promptitude of that opportunity, which
never returns to those who omit it. For
this, the active members of the General
Committee resolved to set on foot an im-
mediate application to Parliament, pray-
ing for a repeal of the penal laws. The
first difficulty they had to surmount arose
in their own body ; their peers, their
gentry (as they affected to call them-
selves), and their prelates, either seduced
or intimidated by Government, gave the
measure all possible opposition ; and, at
length, after a long contest, in which both
parties strained every nerve, and produced
the whole of their strength, the question
was decided on a division in the commit-
tee, by a majority of at least six to one,
in favour of the intended application.
The triumph of the young democracy was
complete ; but though the aristocracy
was defeated, it was not yet entirely
broken down. By the instigation of Go-
vernment they had the meanness to secede
from the General Committee, to disavow
their acts, and even to publish in the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

191

papers that they did not wish to embar-
rass the Government by advancing their
claims of emancipation. It is difficult to
conceive such a degree of political degra-
dation ; but what will not the tyranny of
an execrable system produce in time ?
Sixty-eight gentlemen, individually of
high spirit, were found, who publicly, and
in a body, deserted their party and their
own just claims, and even sanctioned this
pitiful desertion by the authority of their
signatures. Such an effect had the opera-
tion of the penal laws on the minds of the
Catholics of Ireland, as proud a race as
any in all Europe ! *

“ The first attempts of the Catholic
Committee failed totally ; endeavouring
to accommodate all parties, they framed a
petition so humble that it ventured to ask
for nothing, and even this petition they
could not find a single member of the
legislature to present ; of so little conse-
quence, in the year 1790, was the great
mass of the Irish people ! Not dis-
heartened, however, by this defeat, they
went on, and in the interval between that
and the approaching session, they were
preparing measures for a second applica-
tion. In order to add a greater weight
and consequence to their intended peti-
tion, they brought over to Ireland
Eichard Burke, only son of the celebrated
Edmund, and appointed him their agent
to conduct their application to Parlia-
ment. This young man came over with
considerable advantages, and especially
with the eclat of his father’s name, who,
the Catholics concluded, and very reason-
ably, would for his sake, if not for theirs,
assist his son with his advice and direc-
tions. But their expectations in the event
proved abortive. Richard Burke, with a
considerable portion of talent from nature,
and cultivated, as may be well supposed,
with the utmost care by his father, who

* Mr. Tone’s account of the secession of the sixty-
eight members from the General Committee is not
sufficiently explanatory. Mr. Plowden, an excellent
authority on this point, says that it was caused
chiefly by dissatisfaction on account of “ public acts
of Communication of Protestants in the North with
France.” In particular, the people of Belfast had
sent an address of warm congratulation to the
society of “ Friends of the Constitution ” at Bor-
deaux, and had received an eloquent reply. Com-
munications of this kind, says Plowden, “gave par-
ticular offence to Government, who manifested great
jealousy and diffidence towards all persons concerned
in them.” It was to express their horror of co-
operating in any degree with such men and mea-
sures, that the men of landed property and the
prelates seceded. The seceders shortly after pre-
sented to the lord-lieutenant a petition or address,
which went no farther than a general expression of
submissiveness and respect to Government, “throw-
ing themselves and their body on their humanity
and wisdom.” This was called tauntingly the
“ Eleemosynarj' Address.”

idolized him, was utterly deficient in judg-
ment, in temper, and especially in the art
of managing parties. In three or four
months’ time, during which he remained
in Ireland, he contrived to embroil him-
self, and in a certain degree the commit-
tee, with all parties in Parliament, the
opposition as well as the Government, and
ended his short and turbulent career by
breaking with the General Committee.
That body, however, treated him respect-
fully to the last, and, on his departure,
they sent a deputation to thank him for
his exertions, and presented him with the
sum of two thousand guineas.

“ It was pretty much about this time
that my connection with the Catholic
body commenced in the manner which I
am about to relate.

“Russell* had, on his arrival to join
his regiment at Belfast, found the people
so much to his taste, and in return had
rendered himself so agreeable to them,
that he was speedily admitted into their
confidence, and became a member of seve-
ral of their clubs. This was an unusual
circumstance, as British officers, it may
well be supposed, were no great favourites
with the republicans of Belfast. The Ca-
tholic question was at this period begin-
ning to attract the public notice, and the
Belfast Volunteers, on some public occa-
sion, I know not precisely what, wished to
come forward with a declaration in its
favour. For this purpose Russell, who
by this time was entirely in their con-
fidence, wrote to me to draw up and
transmit to him such a declaration as I
thought proper, which I accordingly did.
A meeting of the corps was held in con-
sequence, but an opposition unexpectedly
arising to that part of the declarations
which alluded directly to the Catholic
claims, that passage “was, for the sake of
unanimity, withdrawn for the present,
and the declarations then passed unani-
mously. Russell wrote me an account of
all this, and it immediately set me to
thinking more seriously than I had yet
done upon the state of Ireland. I soon
formed my theory, and on that theory I
have unvaryingly acted ever since.

“ To subvert the tyranny of our exe-
crable Government, to break the connec-
tion with England, the never-failing source
of all our political evils, and to assert the
independence of my country — these Avere
my objects. To unite the whole people of
Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past
dissensions, and to substitute the common
name of Irishman in place of the denomi-
nations of Protestant, Catholic, and I)is-

* Thoma.s Russell, Tone’s most intimate friend
and comrade.

192

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

senter— these A^ere my means. To effec-
tuate these great objects, I reviewed the
three great sects. The Protestants I
despaired of from the outset, for obvious
reasons. Already in possession, by an
unjust mouoply, of the whole power and
patronage of the country, it was not to be
supposed they would ever concur in mea-
sures, the certain tendency of which must
be to lessen their influence as a party,
how much soever the nation might gain.
To the Catholics I thought it unnecessary
to address myself, because as no change
could make their political situation worse,
I reckoned upon their support to a cer-
tainty; besides, they had already begun
to manifest a strong sense of their wrongs
and oppressions ; and finally, I well knew
that, however it might be disguised or
suppressed, there existed in the breast of
every Irish Catholic an inextirpable abhor-
rence of the English name and power.
There remained only the Dissenters, whom
I knew to be patriotic and enlightened :
however, the recent events at Belfast had
showed me that all prejudice was not }’et
entirely removed from their minds. I sat
down accordingly and wrote a pamphlet,
addressed to the Dissenters, and which I
entitled, “ An Argument on behalf of the
Catholics of Ireland,” the object of which
was to convince them, that they and the
Catholics had but one common interest,
and one common enemy ; that the depres-
sion and slavery of Ireland was produced
and perpetuated by the divisions existing
between them, and that, consequently, to
assert the independence of their country
and their own individual liberties, it was
necessary to forget all former feuds, to
consolidate the entire strength of the
whole nation, and to form for the future
but one people. These principles I sup-
ported by the best arguments which sug-
gested themselves to me, and particularly
by demonstrating that the cause of the
failure of all former efforts, and more
especially of the Volunteer Convention
in 1783, was the unjust neglect of the
claims of their Catholic brethren. This
pamphlet, which appeared in September,
1791, under the signature of a “ Northern
Whig,” had a considerable degree of suc-
cess. The Catholics (icith not one of whom
I was at the time acquainted) were pleased
with the efforts of a volunteer in their
cause, and distributed it in all quarters.
The people of Belfast, of whom I had
sj^oken with the respect and admiration I
sincerely felt for them, and to whom I
was also perfectly unknown, printed a
very large edition, which they dispersed
through the wnole North of Ireland, and
I have the great satisfaction to believe

that many of the Dissenters were con-
verted by my arguments. It is like vanity
to speak of my own performances so
much, and the fact is, I believe that I am
somewhat vain on that topic; but as it
was the immediate cause of my being
made known to the Catholic body, I may
be perhaps excused for dwelling on a cir-
cumstance which I must ever look upon,
for that reason, as one of the most fortu-
nate of my life. As my pamphlet spread
more and more, my acquaintance amongst
the Catholics extended accordingly. My
first friend in the body was John Keogh,
and through him I became acquainted
with all the leaders, as Richard McCor-
mick, John Sweetman, Edward Byrne,
Thomas Braughall, in short, the whole
sub-committee, and most of the active
members of the General Committee. It
was a kind of fashion this winter (1791)
among the Catholics to give splendid din-
ners to their political friends in and out
of Parliament, and I was always a guest
of course. I was invited to a grand din-
ner given to Richard Burke on his leaving
Dublin, together with William Todd Jones,
who had distinguished himself by a most
excellent pamphlet in favour of the Ca-
tholic cause, as well as to several enter-
tainments given by clubs and associations.
I was invited to spend a few days in Bel-
fast, in order to assist in framing the first
club of United Irishmen, and to cultivate
a personal acquaintance with those men
whom, though I highly esteemed, I knew
as yet but by reputation. In consequence,
about the beginning of October, I went
down with my friend Russell, who had by
this time quit the army, and was in Dub-
lin on his private affairs. That journey
was by far the most agreeable and inte-
resting one I had ever made ; my recep-
tion was of the most flattering kind, and
I found the men of the most distinguished
public virtue in the nation, the most esti-
mable in all the domestic relations of life.
I had the good fortune to render myself
agreeable to them, and a friendship was
then formed between us which I think it
will not be easy to shake. It is a kind of
injustice to name individuals, yet I can-
not refuse myself the pleasure of observ-
ing how peculiarly fortunate I esteem
myself in having formed connections with
Samuel Neilson, Robert Simms, William
Simms, William Sinclair, Thomas MUabe.
I may as well stop here, for, in enumerat-
ing my most particular friends, I find I
am, in fact, making out a list of the men
of Belfast most distinguished for their
virtue, talent, and patriotism. To pro-
ceed. We formed our club, of which I
Avrote the declaration, and certainly the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

103

formation of that club commenced a new
epoch in the politics of Ireland. At
length, after a stay of about three weeks,
which I look back upon as perhaps the
pleasantest in my life, Russell and I re-
turned to Dublin with instructions to cul-
tivate the leaders in the popular interest,
being Protestants, and, if possible, to form
in the capital a club of United Irishmen.
Neither Russell nor myself was known to
•one of those leaders ; however, we soon
contrived to get acquainted with James
Napper Tandy, who was the principal of
them, and through him with several others,
so that in a little time we succeeded,
and a club was accordingly formed, of
wliich the Honourable Simon Butler was
the first chairman, and Tandy the first
secretary. The club adopted the declara-
tion of their brethren of Belfast, with
whom they immediately opened a cor-
respondence. It is but justice to nn
lionest man who has been persecuted for
Ms firm adherence to his principles, to
observe here, that Tandy, in coming for-
ward on this occasion, well knew that he
was putting to the most extreme hazard
his popularity among the corporations of
the city of Dublin, with whom he had
enjoyed the most tinbounded inliuence for
near twenty years ; and, in fact, in the
event, his popularity was sacrificed. That
did not prevent, liowever, his taking his
part decidedly : he had the firmness to
forego the gratification of his private feel-
ings for the good of his country. The
truth is, Tandy was a very sincere Repub-
lican, and it did not require much argu-
ment to show him the impossibility of
attaining a republic by any means short
of the united powers of the whole people ;
lie therefore renounced the lesser objects
for the greater, and gave up the certain
influence which he possessed (and had well
earned) in the city, for the contingency of
that infiuence which he might have (and
well deserves to have) in the nation. Bor
my own part, I think it right to mention
that, at this time, the establishment of a
republic was not the immediate object of
my speculations. My object was to secure
the independence of my country under
any form of government, to which I was
led by a hatred of England, so deeply
rooted in my nature, that it was rather
an instinct than a principle. I left to
others, better qualified for the inquiry, the 1
investigation and merits of the different !
forms of government, and I contented j
myself with labouring.on my own system, j
which was luckily in perfect coincidence as i
to its operation with that of those men who j
viewed the question on a broader and juster ■
scale than I did at the time I mention.”

Wolfe Tone was shortly after, on the
recommendation of John Keogh, ap-
pointed secretary to the “ General Com-
mittee” of the Catholics, and long la-
boured zealously in their service. But
he Avas not content with mere Catholic
agitation. lie and his friends continued
AAuth unabated zeal in the organisation of
the United Irish Society, which he hoped
to see sAvalloAv up all others.

On the 30th of December, 1791, the
United Irishmen of Dublin held a special
session, at which they approved of a cir-
cular letter which was calculated to en-
courage similar societies, and to it they
annexed a declaration of their political
sentiments, and the test Avhich they had
taken as a social and sacred compact to
bind them more closely together. They
also in their publications animadverted
severely upon the sixty-four addressers.
The general disposition to republicanism
which appeared in the publications and
Avhole comluct of these neAv societies, be-
came daily more and more obnoxious to
Government ; they Avere chiefly composed
of Dissenters, yet several leading men
amongst them Avere Protestants of the
established church. It Avas believed, and
constantly preached up by the llastle,
that this neA\', \fiolent, and affectionate
attachment of the Dissenters for their
Roman Catholic brethren, proceeded not
from any sentiment of liberality or tolera-
tion, but i)urely to engage the co-opera-
tion of the great mass of the people the
more AA'armly in forAvarding the seA^eral
popular questions lately brought before
Ikirliament.

The truth is, that the patrician “ Pa-
triots” of Parliament Avere quite shy of
association Avith the members of the noAV
societies. Some of them Avere alarmed
about French principles of democracy,
Avhich could scarcely be expected to be
agreeable to a privileged class ; others
thought that the United Irishmen and the
existing Catholic Committee both con-
sisted of loAv people, and they Avere pos-
sessed by that general aAmrsion felt by
members of Parliament against all extra-
parliamentary movements.

From that time shyness, jealousy, and
distrust subsisted betAA'een those new so-
cieties and the Whig Club, though the
agents and Avriters for GoA'ernment at-
tempted to identify their vioAvs, measures,
and principles, as appears by the ucaa^s-
papers and other publications of that day.
Tone, on his side, aa'Iio had Avdiolly given
up Parliament as a thing not only useless,
but noxious to the nation, felt the utmost
resentment at the members of the opposi-
tion for any longer keeping up the de-

19^

IIISTOIir OF IRELAND.

hision of parliamentary patriotism, and
avowed that he respected more the Castle
members themselves. They want,” said
he, at least one vice— hypocrisy.”

The Catholic General Committee had
new life infused into it through the energy
of Keogh and the labours of Wolfe Tone.

“ There seems,” says Tone in his san-
guine way, “ from this time out, a special
Providence to have watched over the
affairs of Ireland, and to have turned to
her profit and advantage the deepest laid
and most artful schemes of her enemies.
Every measure adopted, and skilfully
adopted, to thwart the expectations of the
Catholics, and to crush the rising spirit
of union between them and the Dissen-
ters, has, without exception, only tended
to confirm and fortify both, and the fact
I am about to mention, for one, is a strik-
ing proof of the truth of this assertion.
Tlie principal charge in the general out-
cry raised in the House of Commons
against the General Committee was that
they Avere a self-appointed body, not
nominated by the Catholics of the nation,
and consequently not authorised to speak
on their behalf. This argument, Avhich in
fact Avas the truth, aa'us triumphantly
dwelt upon by the enemies of the Catho-
lics ; but, in the end, it AA'ould have per-
haps been more fortunate for their Avishes
if they had not laid such a stress upon
this circumstance, and draAvn the line of
separation so strongly between the Gene-
ral Committee and the body at large. For
the Catholics throughout Ireland, aa’Iio
hod hitherto been indolent spectators of
the business, seeing their brethren of
Dublin, and especially the General Com-
mittee, insulted and abused for their exer-
tions in pursuit of that liberty AAdiich, if
attained, must be a common blessing to
all, came forvA-ard as one man from every
quarter of the nation Avith addresses and
resolutions, adopting the measures of the
General Committee as their OAvn, declar-
ing that body the only organ competent
to speak for the Catholics of Ireland, and
condemning, in terms of the most marked
disapprobation and contempt, the conduct
of the sixty-eight apostates, Avho Avere so
triumphantly held up by the hirelings of
Government as the respectable part of
the Catholic community. The question
Avas noAv fairly decided. The aristocracy
shrunk back in disgrace and obscurit}'.
leaving the field open to the democracy,
and that body neither Avanted talents nor
spirit to profit by the advantages of their
present situation.

“ It is to the sagacit}' of Myles Keon,
of Keonhrook, County Leitrim, that his
country is indebted for the system on

Avhich the General Committee Avas to be
framed anew', in a manner that should
render it impossible to bring it again in
doubt AA'hether that body Avere not the
organ of the Catholic Avill. His plan Avas
to associate to the Committee, as then
constituted, tAA'o members from each
county and great citA% actual residents of
the place Avhich the}' represented, Avho
Avere, lioAveA'er, only to be summoned upon
extraordinary occasions, leaving the com-
mon routine of business to the original
members, avIio, as I have already related,
Avere all residents of Dublin. The Com-
mittee, as thus constituted, Avould consist
of half tOAvn and half country members ;
and the elections for the latter he pro-
posed should be held by means of primary
and electoral assemblies, held, the first in
each parish, the second in each county
and great tOAvn. He likeAvise proposed
that the tOAvn members should be held to
correspond regularly Avith their country
associates, these Avith their immediate
electors, and these again Avith the primary
assemblies. A more simple, and at the
same time more comprehensiA'e, organisa-
tion could not be deAused. By this mean&
the General Committee became the centre
of a circle embracing the Avhole nation,
and pushing its rays instantaneously to
the remotest parts of the circumference.
The plan Avas laid in Avriting before the
General Committee by Myles Keon, and,
after mature discussion, the first part,
relating to the association and election of
the country members, Avas adopted Avith
some slight variation; the latter part,
relating to the constant communication
Avith the mass of the people, Avas thought,
under the circumstances, to be too hardy,
and AA'as accordingly dropped sub si/entio.”

This Avas a project for a regular con-
vention of delegates, Avhich Avas then a
measure perfectly legal, as indeed it still
is in England.

On the proposal for this convention, there
Avas immediate alarm and almost frantic
rage on the part of the Ascendency : for
the Catholics Avere by this time over three
millions ; and the representatiA'es of such
a mass of people meeting in Dublin, and
backed by the active sympathies of the
fast-groAving United Irish Society, Avere
likely to be perilous to the Government at
a moment of such high political excite-
ment. Grand juries and town corporations
passed violent resolutions against it, and
pledged themselves to resist and suppress
it. But the committee had taken counsel’s
opinion, and felt quite secure on the legal
ground. Some of the further procceedings-
may most fi \\y be given in the Avords of
Wolfe Tone’s oAvn narrative, Avith AA'hich

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

195

^Ye must then part company, not without
regret; for his “Autobiography” breaks
off here : — *

“ This (1702) was a memorable year in
Ireland, The publication of the plan for
the new organizing of the General Com-
mittee gave an instant alarm to all the
supporters of the British Government,
and every effort was made to prevent the
election of the country members ; for it
was sufficiently evident that, if the repre-
sentatives of three millions of oppressed
people were once suffered to meet, it would
not afterwards be safe, or indeed possible,
to refuse their just demands. Accordingly,
at the ensuing assizes, the grand juries,
universally, throughout Ireland, published
the most furious, I may say frantic, reso-
lutions, against the plan and its authors,
whom they charged with little short of
high treason. Government, likewise, was
too successful in gaining over the Catho-
lic clergy, particularly the bishops, who
gave the measure at first very serious
opposition. The committee, however, was
not daunted ; and, satisfied of the just-
ness of their cause, and of their own
courage, they laboured, and with success,
to inspire the same spirit in the breasts
of their brethren throughout the nation.
For this purpose, their first step was an
admirable one. By their order I drew
up a state of the case, Avith the plan
for the organization of the committee
annexed, Avhich Avas laid before Simon
Butler and Bercsford Burton, two lavA'yers
of great eminence, and, Avhat Avas of con-
sequence here, king’s counsel, to knoAv
Avhether the committee had in any respect
contravened the law of the land, or
Avhether, by carrying the proposed plan in-
to execution, the parties concernetl Avould
subject themselves to pain or penalty.
The answers of both the lawyers Avere
completely in our favour, and yyq instantly
printed them in the papers, and dispersed
them in handbills, letters, and all possible
shapes. This blow Avas decisive as to the
legality of the measure. For the bishops,
Avliose opposition ga\'e us great trouble,
four or five different missions Avere un-
dertaken by different members of the sub-
committee into the proAunces, at their
OAvn expense, in order to to hold confer-
ences Avith them, in Avhich, Avith much
difficulty, they succeeded so far as to se-
cure the co-operation of some, and the
neutrality of the rest of the prelates. On
these missions the most active members
Avere John Keogh and Thomas Braugliall,
neither of Avhom spared purse nor per-
son Avliere the interests of the Catholic

* Some parts of his journals indeed will be found
most valuable references farther on.

body Avere concerned. I accompanied Mr.
Braughall in his visit to Connaught,
Avhere he Avent to meet the gentry of that
province at the great fair of Ballinasloe.
As it Avas late in the evening Avhen Ave left
toAvn, the postillion Avho drove us, having
giA'en warning, I am satisfied, to some
footpads, the carriage was stopped by four
or five fellows at the gate of Phoenix
Park. We had two cases of pistols in the
carriage, and we agreed not to be robbed.
Braughall, Avho Avas at this time about
sixty-five years of age, and lame from a
a fall off his horse some years before, Avas
as cool and intrepid as man could be. He
took the command, and by his orders I
let down all the glasses, and called out to
the felloAvs to come on, if they were so in-
clined, for that Ave Avere ready ; Braughall
desiring at the same time 7iot to Jive till
I could touch the scoundrels. This rather
embarrassed them, and they did not
venture to approach the carriage, but
held a council of Avar at the horse’s head.
I then presented one of my pistols at
the postillion, swearing horribly that I
Avould put him instantly to death if he
did not drive over them, and I made him
feel the muzzle of the pistol against the
back of his head ; the fellows on this
took to their heels and ran off, and Ave
proceeded on our journey Avithout further
interruption. When Ave arrived at the
inn, Braughall, Avhose goodness of heart
is equal to his courage, and no man is
braver, began by abusing the postillion
for his treachery, and ended by giving
him half-a-croAvn. I Avanted to break the
rascal’s bones, but he Avould not suffer
me, and this Avas the end of our adven-
ture.

“ All parties Avere noAv fully employed
preparing for the ensuing session of Par-
liament, The Government, through the
organ of the corporations and grand juries,
opened a heavy fire upon us of manifes-
toes and resolutions. At first Ave Avere
like young soldiers, a little stunned Avitli
the noise, but after a fcAv rounds avc be-
gan to look about us, and seeing nobody
drop Avith all this furious cannonade, Ave
took courage, and determined to return
the fire. In consequence, Avherever there
AA'as a meeting of the Protestant Ascen-
dency, Avhich was the title assumed by that
party (and a very impudent one it Avas),
Ave took care it should be folloAved by a
meeting of the Catholics, avIio spoke as
loud, and louder than their adversaries,
and as Ave had the right clearly on our
side, Ave found no great difficulty in
silencing the enemy on this quarter. The
Catholics likeAvise took care, at the same
time that they branded their enemies, to

196

mSTOllY OF IRELAND.

mark their gratitude to their friends,
wlio "were daily increasing, and especially
to the people of Belfast, between whom
and the Catholics the union was now
completel}' established. Among the vari-
ous attacks made on iis tliis summer, the
most remarkable for their virulence were
those of the grand jury of Louth, headed
by the Speaker of the House of Commons ;
of Limerick, at Avhich the Lord Chan-
cellor assisted ; and of the corporation of
the city of Dublin ; whicli last published
a most furious manifesto, threatening us,
in so many words, with a resistance by
force. In consequence, a meeting was
held of the Catholics of Dublin at large,
which was attended by several thousands,
where the manifesto of the corporation
was read and most ably commented upon
by John Keogh, Dr. Kyan, Dr. M‘Neven,
and several others, and a counter mani-
festo being proposed, which was written
by my friend Emmet, and incomparably
well done, it was carried unanimously,
and published in all the papers, together
v/itli the speeches above mentioned ; and
both speeches and the manifesto had such
an infinite superiority over those of the
corporation, which Avere also published
and diligently circulated by the Govern-
ment, that it put an end effectually to
this AAUirfare of resolutions.

The people of Belfast were not idle
on their part ; they spared neither pains
nor expense to propagate the new doc-
trine of the union of Irishmen, througli
the Avhole North of Ireland, and they had
the satisfaction to see their proselytes
rapidly extending in all directions. In
order more effectually to spread their
principles, tAvelve of the most active and
intelligent among them subscribed £250
each, in order to set on foot a paper,
Avhose object should be to giA'e a fair
statement of all that passed in Ei’ance,
whither every one turned their eyes ; to
inculcate the necessity of union amongst
Irishmen of all religious persuasions ; to
support the emancipation of the Catholics ;
and finally, as the necessary, though not
avoAved consequence of all this, to erect
Ireland into a republic, independent of
England, This paper, Avhich tliey called,
very appositely, the JS'orihcni btar, Avas
conducted by my friend Samuel Neilson,
Avlio Avas unanimously cliosen editor, and
it could not be delivered into abler hands.
It is, in truth, a most incomparable paper,
and it rose instantly, on its appearance,
Avith a most rapid and extensive sale. The
Catholics ev’cryAvIiere through Ireland (I
mean the leading Catholics) Avere, of
course, subscribers, and the JS'orihern Siar
Avas one great means of effectually ac-

complishing the union of the tAvo great
sects, by the simple process of making
their mutual sentiments better knoAvii to
each other.

“ It Avas determined by the people of
Belfast to commemorate this year the
anniversary of the taking of the Bastile
Avith great ceremony. For tins purpose
they planned a revieAv of the Volunteers
of the toAvn and neighbourhood, to be
foiloAved by a grand procession, with
emblematical devices, etc. They also
determined to avail themselves of this
opportunity to bring fonvard the Catholic
question in force, and, in consequence,
they resolved to publish tAvo addresses,
one to the people of France, and one to the
people of Ireland, They gave instructions
to Dr. Brennan to prepare the former,
and the latter fell to my lot Brennan
executed his task admirably, and I made
my address, for my part, as good as I
kneAV hoAv. We Avere invited to assist at
the ceremony, and a great number of the
leading members of the Catholic Com-
mittee determined to avail themselves of
this opportunity to shoAv their zeal for
the success of the cause of liberty in
France, as Avell as their respect and grati-
tude to their friends in Belfast. In conse-
quence, a grand assembly took place on
the 14tli of July. After the revicAAg the
Volunteers and inhabitants, to the num-
ber of about GOOD, assembled in the
Linen-IIall, and vmted the address to the
French people unanimously. The address
to the jDeople of Ii-eland folloAved, and, as
it Avas directly and unequivocably in
favour of the Catholic claims, Ave ex-
pected some opposition, but Ave Avere soon
relieved from our anxiety, for the address
passed, I may say, unanimously : a fcAv
A'entured to oppose it indirectly, but their
arguments Avere exposed and overset by
tlie friends to Catholic Emancipation,
amongst the foremost of AAdiom Ave had
tlie pleasure to see several Dissenting
clergymen of great popularity in that
county.”

It Avill be seen that on the Avhole some
progress Avas already made, and much
more Avas soon to be expected in har-
monizing the Catholics and Dissenters,
at least in the tOAvns. A harder task
remained — to make peace betAveen them
in the country. In the County Armagh
Feep-of-Day Boj’s Avere groAving more
ferocious, and, of course, the Defenders
moi’e strongl}^ organized for resistance.
As before, tlie country gentlemen of that
count}", as ignorant and savage a race
of squires as any in Ireland, took part
Avith the aggressors. At an assizes, in
1791, the grand jury passed a resolution

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

107

declaring that there had sprung up among
the Papists “ a passion for arming them-
selves, contrary to the law”— and that this
was matter of serious alarm, etc. As
the usual pretext of the visits of the Pro-
testant Boys, “ Wreckers,” and other
such banditti, was to search for arms,
such a resolution of the grand jury was
neither more nor less than an invitation to
continue such visits, and an assurance of
protection to the “ Wreckers.” These
troubles had now extended considerably
into Tyrone, Down, and Monaghan Coun-
ties ; and it stirs indignation even at this
day to think of so many wretched families
always kept in wakeful terror ; lying down
in fear and rising up with a heavy heart,
or perhaps flying to the desolate moun-
tains by the light of their own burning
cabins.

CHAPTER XXVI.

1701—1792.

Principles of United Irish Society. — Test. — Ad-
dresses.— Meeting of Parliament. — Catholic relief.
— Trifling measure of that kind. — Petition of the
Catholics. — Rejected. — Steady majority of two-
thirds for the Castle. — Placeholding members. —
Violent agitation upon the Catholic claims. — Ques-
tions put to Catholic Universities of the Continent.
— Their answers. — Opposition to project of Con-
vention.— Catholic question in the Whig Club. —
Catholic Convention in Dublin. — National Guard.

The first clubs of “ United Irishmen ”
were perfectly legal and constitutional in
their structure, in their action, and in
their aims ; and so continued until the
new organization was adopted in 1795.
They consisted, both in Belfast and Dub-
lin, of Protestants chiefly, though many
eminent Catholics joined them "from the
first. The first sentence of the constitu-
tion of the first club, at Belfast, is in these
plain and moderate words.

“ 1st. This society is constitued for the
purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of
affection, a communion of rights, and a
union of power among Irishmen of every
religious persuasion, and thereby to obtain
a complete reform in the legislature,
founded on the princijfles of civil, political,
and religious liberty.”

Recollecting the hopeless character of
the Irish Parliament of that day, one can
scarcely pretend that it did not need
reform ; ” and as it most certainly Avould
never reform itself, unless acted upon
strongly by an external pressure, the idea
seems to have been reasonable to endea-
vour to procure a union of poAver amongst
Irishmen of every religious persuasion
for that end. It Avas too clear also that
a Parliament so constituted newr Avould

emancipate the Catholics — that is, never
Avould tolerate a “ brotherhood of affec-
tion ” or a “ communion of rights.” It
Avas therefore extremely natural for pa-
triotic Protestants, Avho felt that Ireland
Avas their country, and no longer a colony
but a nation, to take some means of
assuring their felloAV-countrymen, the
Catholics, that they at least did not Avish
to perpetuate the degradation and exclu-
sion of three millions of Irishmen ; and
thereupon to concert Avith them some
common action for getting rid of this in-
curable oligarchy. Avliich Avas the c.ommon
enemy of them all. This was the Avhole
meaning and purpose of the society for
more than three years ; and its means and
agencies Avere as fair, open, and rational
as its objects. Addresses, namely, to the
people of Ireland, and sometimes to Re-
form clubs in England and in Scotland ;
articles in the newspapers, jAarticularly in
the Northern Star ; and the promotion of
an enlarged personal intercourse betAveen
the tAvo sects Avho had lived in such
deadly estrangement for two centuries.
When they met one another face to face,
Avorked together in clubs and meetings,
visited one another’s houses, fondled one
another’s children, there could not but
groAv up somewhat of that feeling of
“ Brotherhood” AvUich is the first Avord of
their constitution, the very cardinal prin-
ciple of their society.

But this ‘‘Brotlierhood,” Avhat Avas it
but the French fraternitel And their
“ Civil, political, and religious liberty ”
Avas a phrase Avhich to the ear of Govern-
ment sounded of cgalite am\ the Champ de
Mars. The Avhole of the programme given
above, Avhich looks to-day so just and
sensible, Avas then felt to be reeking all
over Avith “French principles.” The Go-
vernment therefore kept an eye steadily
on these societies, as aauII soon appear in
the sequel.

The Dublin Club, Avhich Avas formed in
November of the same year, 1791, adopted
the same declaration of principles or con-
stitution, but added a “test,” Avhich Avas
notliing but a solemn engagement to be
taken by each neAv member, “ that he
Avould persevere in endeavouring to form
a brotherhood of affection amongst Irish-
men of every religious persuasion,” etc.,
and “ that he Avould never inform on or
give evidence against any member of this
or similar societies, for any act or expres-
sion of theirs done or made, collectively or
individually, in or out of this society, in
pursuance of the spirit of this obliga-
tion in other AAmrds, that if brothei'hood
amongst Irishmen, and the claim of civil
and religious liberty should be made a

198

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

crime by laAv (as it was but too likely),
he Avould not inform upon his comrades
for their complicity in those crimes.

From this time active correspondence
was carried on. A strong address, writ-
ten by Dr. Drennan, Avas sent by the
Society of United Irishmen in Dublin to
the delegates for promoting a reform in
Scotland, in Avhich this sentence occurs,
one of many similar suggestions Avhich
AA'ere undoubtedly intended to lead the
way to something more and better than a
reform in Parliament ; — “ If Government
has a sincere regard for the safety of the
constitution, let them coincide AAuth the
people in the speedy reform of its abuses,
and not, by an obstinate adherence to
them, drive that people into -Republican-
ism” There Avas another address from the
same body to “ the Volunteers of Ireland”
(for the Avreck of that organisation still
existed in some j^laces), adopted at a
meeting of Avhich Drennan Avas chair-
man, and Archibald Hamilton RoAvan,
secretary, and containing still stronger
expressions. This document became, in
1794, the subject of a prosecution for
seditious libel against PoAA'an the secre-
tary, Avho Avas convicted by a carefully
packed jury of his enemies, and sentenced
to two years imprisonment, and a fine of
five hundred pounds.

In the meantime, parliamentary pro-
ceedings Avere going forward much in
their usual Avay. A session opened on
the 19th of January, 1792, but it is im-
possible noAv to take much interest in
following the futile efforts of the opposi-
tion. j\Ir. Grattan, Avho carefully aAmided
the United Irishmen, could still at least
abuse the Government in terms of elo-
quent scurrility, and did not fail to do so,
in moving an amendment to the address :
“ By this trade of Parliament the king
Avas absolute ; his Avill Avas signified by
both Houses of Parliament, A\'ho Avere then
as much an instrument in his hand as a
bayonet in the hands of a regiment. Like
a regiment, they had their adjutant, Avho
sent to the infirmary for the old, and to the
brothel for the young ; and men thus
carted as it Avere into that House to \mte
for the minister, Avere called the represen-
tatives of the people.”

The country, as Avell as the ministers,
had heard all this abuse before, and had
begun almost to regard it as a discharge
of blank cartridge. Yet the session is in
some measure notable for a trifling Catho-
lic Relief measure, introduced by Sir
Hercules Langrishe, and rather unexpec-
tedly supported by the Government. In
fact it Avas evident to the English GoA'crn-
raent that the Catholics were becoming a

real element for good or for evil in this
Irish nation ; they had refused to be ex-
tirpated ; refused to be brutalized by ig-
norance, for they Avould fly to the ends of
the earth for education ; they had so Avell
profited also by the petty and grudging
relaxations already granted them, that a
large proportion of them Avere rich and
influential ; they Avere, in short, a power
to be conciliated if that could be cheaply
done, and so detached from “ French
principles ” and made grateful to the
Government. It is not, therefore, sur-
prising to find IMr. Secretary Hobart (of
course by orders from England) seconding
the motion of Langrishe for lea\'e to bring
in this bill. Sir Hercules thus defines the
objects of his bill for the Catholics: —

1st. He AA'ould give them the practice
and profession of the laAA’-, as a reasonable
provision, and application of their talents
to their OAvn country.

2dly. He Avould restore to them educa-
tion, entire and unrestrained, because a
state of ignorance Avas a state of barbarity.
That Avould be accomplished by taking off
the necessity for a licence, as enjoined by
the act of 1782.

3dly. He Avould draAv closer the
bonds of intercourse and affection, by
alloAving intermarriage, repealing that
cruel statute Avhich served to betray
female credulity, and bastardize the chil-
dren of a virtuous mother.

4tlil}^ He Avould remove those obstruc-
tions to arts and manufactures that
limited the number of apprentices, Avhich
Avere so necessary to assist and promote
trade. He then moA^ed, “That leaA^e be
giA-en to bring a bill for removing certain
restraints and disabilities under Avhich his
majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects labour
from statutes at present in force.”

This bill Avas prepared and concerted
by its author in concert Avith Edmund
Burke, and Avas perhaps as liberal in its
provisions as any bill Avhich could at that
moment be presented Avith any chance of
success : yet, meagre as it Avas, it called
forth a storm of bigoted and brutal oppo-
sition. The General Committee of the
Catholics — EdAvard Byrne, Esq., in the
chair — held a meeting and passed some
resolutions, A\diich it is someAvhat humi-
liating to read, but which Avere certainly
politic in the circumstances. Here is the
document : —

Dublin, February ^th, 1792.

“ GeXERAL CoMAlITTEE OF ROMAN
Catholics. Edaa-ard Bvrne,
Esq., in the Chair.

“ Resolved, That this committee has
been informed that reports hav'e been

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

199

circulated that the application of the
Catholics for relief extends to unlimited
and total emancipation; and that attempts
have been made, wickedly and falsely, to
instil into the minds of the Trotestants
of this kingdom an opinion that our
applications were preferred in a tone of
menace.

“ Resolved, That several Protestant gen-
tlemen have expressed great satisfaction
on being individually informed of the real
extent and respectful manner of the ap-
plications for relief; have assured us that
nothing could have excited jealousy, or
apparent opposition to us, from our Pro-
testant countrymen but the above-men-
tioned misapprehensions.

“ Resolved, That we therefore deem it
necessary to declare that the whole of our
late applications, whether to his majesty’s
ministers, to men in power, or to private
members of the legislature, as Avell as our
intended petition, neither did, nor does
contain anything, or extend further, either
in substance or in principle, than the four
following objects :

“ 1st, Admission to the profession and
practice of the law.

“ 2d, Capacity to serve in country ma-
gistracies.

“ 8d, A right to be summoned, and to
serve on grand and petty juries.

“ 4th, The I'ight of voting in counties
only for Protestant members of Parliament :
in such a manner, however, as that a
Roman Catholic freeholder should not
vote, unless he either rented and culti-
vated a farm of twenty pounds per an-
num, in addition to his forty shilling
freehold ; or else possessed a freehold
to the amount of twenty pounds a
year.”

I'liis is to say, the Catholic Committee
found itself obliged earnestly to disavow
the sacrilegious thought of being allowed
to vote on the same qualification as the
Protestant forty-shilling freeholders ; dis-
claimed with horror the idea of voting for
Catholic members of Parliament ; and
publicly declared to Parliament and to
all mankind that they did not presume
to aspire to “ total emancipation.” But
humble and scanty as their claim was, it
Avas more than the Langrishe bill pro-
posed to grant them. There Avas no pro-
vision in it for admitting them to the
elective franchise upon any terms Avhat-
ever. The committee prepared a petition,
Avhich Avas signed by some of the most
respectable mercantile men of Dublin,
and while the bill Avas in progress, the
petition Avas presented by Mr. Egan.
This gave rise to a conversation on the
folloAving Monday (20th February). On

that day Mr. David La Touche moved
that the petition of the Roman Catholic
committee, presented to the House on the
preceding Saturday, should be read by
the clerk : it Avas read, and he then moved
that it should be rejected. The motion
Avas seconded by Mr. Ogle. The greater
part of the House Avas very violent for
the rejection of the petition. Some few,
Avho Avere against the prayer of the peti-
tion, objected to the harsh measure of
rejection. Several of the opposition mem-
bers supported Mr. La Touche’s motion.
E\'en Mr. G. Ponsonby, on this occasion,
A'oted against his frieml Mr. Grattan 'The
solicitor-general attempted to soften the
refusal to the Catholics by moving that
the prayer of the petition, as far at it re-
lated to a participation of the electiA^e
franchise, should not then be complied
Avith. The attorney-general and some
other staunch supporters of Government
had spoken similar language ; that they
hoped quickly to see all religious dis-
tinctions and restrictions done aAvay Avith,
but that the fulness of time Avas not yet
come. Mr. Forbes, the Hon.F. Hutchin-
son, Colonel (noAv Lord) Hutchinson, Mr.
Smith, Mr. Hardy, and Mr. Grattan
spoke strongly against the motion, and in
favour of admitting the Catholics to a
share in the elective franchise. Much
virulent abuse Avas heaped upon that part
of the body of Roman Catholics Avhich Avas
supposed to be represented by the Catho-
lic Committee. At a very late hour the
House divided, 208 for rejecting the peti-
tion, and 23 only against it. Then Mr. La
Touche moved that the petition from the
society of the United Irishmen of Belfast
should be also rejected ; and the question
being put a\ as carried with tAVO or three
negatives.

The bill itself passed quietly through
the committee ; and on the third rsading,
Sir Hercules Langrishe congratulated the
country on the groAvth of the spirit of
liberality. The growth Avas sIoav, and the
liberality Avas rather narroAV ; nor Avould
this measure deserve mention — as it Avas
soon superseded by a much larger one —
but to show the very humble and unpre-
tending position taken by the only body
then representing the Catholics. It must
be remembered, too, that war in Europe
Avas by this time imminent and certain ;
and though England had not yet formally
joined the coalition against France, that
event Avas becoming daily more inevitable;
and the Government Avas very desirous,
as usual in such moments of danger, to
send a message of peace to Ireland, and
to shoAv the three millions of Catholics
that their real friends AA'ere, not those

200

1II3TOKY OF IRELAND.

“ fraternal ” United Irishmen, but Mr.
Pitt and the Earl of Westmoreland.

Upon all other questions the state of
parties in Parliament continued nearly
the same that it had been for many years ;
that is, the Castle -was always certain
of more than a two-thirds majority. Mr.
G. Ponsonby, after an elaborate argu-
ment, moved for leave to bring in a bill
repealing every law Avhich jwohibited a
Trade from Ireland with the countries
lying eastward of the Cape of Good
Hope ; Avliich was lost by 15G votes
against 70. On the same day. Mr. Forbes,
faithful to his special mission, brought
forward his regular Place and Pension
bills ; they were both put off to a dis-
tant day, without a division, though not
without some debate. Indeed these at-
tacks on the places and pensions wei’e
ROW more intolerable to the Government
and its supporters than ever before ; and
They were louder than ever in their re-
probation of such Jacobin movements,
as a manifest attempt to diminish the
royal prerogative and bring in French
principles.

A singular motion was made this ses-
sion, which merits notice as an illustra-
tion of tlie shameless and desperate cor-
ruption of the times. Mr. Brown moved
to bring in a bill to repeal an act of the
last session touching the “weighing of
butter, hides, and tallow ” in the city of
Cork, and the appointment of a Aveigh-
master in that city. This office had long
been in the gift of the corporation of the
city, and the corporation had always
found one weighmaster more than enough ;
but the Government, in pursuance, said
Mr. Browne, of their settled policy of
“ creating influence,” had taken the ap-
pointment, split it into three parts, and
bestowed it on three memhers of Farliament.
Mr. Grattan seconded the motion. It Avas
opposed by the chancellor of the exche-
quer on the express ground that it Avas an
“ insult to the crown,” and therefore a
manifest piece of French democracy and
infidelitA'', intended to overthroAv the
throne and the altar. There Avas a sharp
debate, in Avhich Patriots said many cut-
ting things ; and at half-past two in the
morning the motion Avas negatived Avith-
out a diA’ision. Is it Avonderful that the
minds of honest people Avere noAv alto-
gether turned aAvay from such a Parlia-
ment ? It Avas prorogued on the 18th of
April. The Speaker, in his address to the
Auceroy, speaks of one gratifying fact,
“ the extension of trade, agriculture, and
manufactures, Avhich has Avith a rapid and
uninterrupted progress raised this king-
dom to a state of prosperity and Avealth

noA-er before experienced in it.” But at
the same time he let his excellency knoAv
that this prosperity “ Avould soon cease ”■
if they did not carefully cherish the
blessed constitution in church and
state. “ Its preservation, therefore,” lie
continued, “ must ever be the great
object of their care, and there is no
principle on Avhich it is founded so essen-
tial to its preserA'ation, nor more justly
dear to their patriotic and loyal feelings,
than that AAdiich has settled the throne of
these realms on his majesty’s illustrious
house ; on it, and on the provisions for
securing a Protestant Parliament, depends
the Protestant Ascendency, and Avith it
the continuance of the many blessings Ave
now enjoy.”

It appears from the studied allusions to
the Protestant Ascendency, Avhich in the
speech of the Speaker Avere evidently
aimed against the petition of the Catho-
lics for a participation in the elective-
franchise, that Mr. Foster Avished to raise
a strong and general opposition to that
measure throughout the country : but the
speech of the lord-lieutenant imported
that the Government, moved by the im-
pulse of the British councils, Avas disposed
rather to extend than contract the indul-
gences to the Eoman Catholics. His
majesty approA'ed of their AAusdom in the
liberal indulgences that had been granted,
but suggested no apprehension of danger
to the Protestant interest, Avhich had been
almost a matter of course in all A'iceregal
speeches, to the great comfort of the-
“ Ascendency.”

This year Avas a season of most A^ehe-
ment agitation and discussion upon the
Catholic claims. That body Avas, of course,
greatly dissatisfied Avith the miserable
measure of relief granted by the shabby
bill of Sir Hercules Langrishe. Mr. Simon
Butler, chairman of the Dublin Society of
United Irishmen, published, by order of
that society, a “ Digest of the Popery
LaAvs,” bringing into one view the Avhole
body of penalties and disabilities to Avhich
Catholics still remained subject after all
the small and nibbling attempts or pre-
tences of relief. The pamphlet thus truly
sums up the actual condition of the Ca-
tholics at that moment, after Sir Hercules
Langrishe’s Act: —

“ Such is the situation of three millions
of good and faithful subjects in their
native land ! Excluded from every trust,
poAA'cr, or emolument of the state, civil or
military ; excluded from all the benefits of
the constitution in all its parts ; excluded
from all corporate rights and immunities ;
expelled from grand juries, restrained in
petit juries ; excluded from every direc-

IIISTOIir OF ira^LAND.

201

tion, from every trust, from every in-
corporated' society, from every estab-
lishment, occasional or fixed, instituted
for public defence, public police, public
morals, or public convenience ; from the
bench, from the bank, from the ex-
change, from the university, from the
college of physicians : from what are

they not excluded? There is no in-
stitution Avhich the wit of man has in-
vented or the progress of society pro-
duced, which private charity or public
munificence has founded for the advance-
ment of education, learning, and good
arts, for tlm permanent relief of age,
infirmity, or misfortune, from the super-
intendence of which, and in all cases
where common cliarity would permit,
from the enjoyment of which the legisla-
ture has not taken care to exclude the
Catholics of Ireland. Such is the state
which the corporation of Dublin have
thought proper to assert, ‘ differs in no
respect from that of the Protestants, save
only in the exercise of political power ; ’
and the host of grand juries consider ‘ as
essential to the existence of the constitu-
tion, to the permanency of the connection
with England, and the continuation of
the throne in his majesty’s royal house.’
A greater libel on the constitution, the
connection, or the succession, could not
be pronounced, nor one more pregnant
with dangerous and destructive conse-
quences than this, which asserts that
they are only to be maintained and con-
tinued by the slavery and oppression of
three millions of good and loyal subjects.”
At the same time the General Commit-
tee prepared a “Declaration” of Catholic
tenets on certain points with regard to
whicli people of that creed had long been
wantonly belied : such as keeping of faith
with heretics ; the alleged pretension of
the Pope to absolve subjects from their
allegiance ; of clergymen to dispense
them from oaths, and the like. All these
alleged doctrines the Declaration indig-
nantly and contemptuously denied ; and
it was signed universally througliout
Ireland by clergy and laity. To the
Declaration was added a republication of
the well-known “ Answers of six Catholic
Universities abroad to the queries which
liad been propounded to them, at the re-
quest of Mr. Pitt, three years before, on
behalf of the English Catholics.” The
universities were those of Paris, Louvain,
Alcala, Douay, Salamanca, and Valla-
dolid. The queries and the answers form
a highly important document for the his-
tory of the time. We give the queries in
full, and an extract or two from the
answers— only premising that Mr. Pitt

sought these declarations, not to satisfy
his own mind, because he was too well
informed to need tliis, but only to stop
the mouths of benighted country gentle-
men and greedy Ascendency politicians,
who would be sure to bawd out against
the concessions to Catholics which he in
that perilous time and for political reasons
wxis determined to grant.

THE QUEUIES.

1. Has the Pope, or cardinals, or any
body of men. or any individual of the
Cliurch of Rome, any civil authority,
pow'er, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence what-
soever, wdthin the realm of England ?

2. Can the Pope, or cardinals, or any
bod.y of men, or any individual of the
Church of Rome, absolve or dispense his
majesty’s subjects from their oath of alle-
giance, upon any pretext wdratsoever ?

3. Is there any principle in the tenets of
the Catholic faith by which Catholics are
justified in not keeping faith with heretics,
or other persons differing from them in
religious opinions, in any transaction,
either of a public or a private nature ?

And the six universities responded
unanimously and simultaneously in the
negative upon all the three points. The
answers are all exceedingly distinct and
categorical. That of the university of
Alcala, in Spain, may serve as a speci-
men : —

“ To the first question it is answ'ered —
That none of the persons mentioned in
the prr posed question, either individually
or collectively in council assembled, have
any right in civil matters ; but that all
civil power, jurisdiction, and pre-eminence
are derived from inheritance, election,
the consent of the people, and other such
titles of that nature.

“To the second it is answ^ered, in like
manner — That none of the persons above-
mentioned have a powder to absolve the
subjects of his Britannic majesty from
their oaths of allegiance.

“ To the third question it is answered
— That the doctrine Avhich would exempt
Catholics from the obligation of keeping
faith witli heretics, or with any other
persons wdio dissent from them in matters
of religion, instead of being an article of
Catholic faith, is entirely rexmgnant to its
tenets.

“ Signed in the usual form, March 17th,
1789.”

The learned doctors of some of these
universities could not refrain, Avhile they
gave their answ^ers, from administering a
rebuke to those who asked such questions.
For instance, the Faculty of Divinity at

202

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Louvain, “ Having requested to give an
opinion upon the questions above stated,
does it with readiness— but is struck with
astonishment that such questions should,
at the end of this 18th century, be proposed
to any learned body, by inhabitants of a
kingdom [England] that glories in the
talents and discernment of its natives.”

The publication of the Catholic Declar-
ation, with the opinions of the univer-
sities, was very far indeed from satisfying
the theologians of the Protestant interest;
especially as there came forth at the same
time the detailed plan for electing dele-
gates this year to the Convention of
Catholics Avhich had already been decided
upon. These Papists were evidently pre-
paring to rise a little out of their abject
humility. The Protestant theologians
thought themselves too acute to be im-
jiosed upon by all those fine protestations
of Papists, and professions made by Popish
universities. ISince Avhen, they desired to
know, Avas it held that the declaration of
persons charged with systematic perfidy
— that they Avere persons avIio keep faith —
Avas held to be the evidence of their good
character ? They also cited examples of
the Pope haA'ing actually, in former ages,
absohxd, or attempted to absoh^e, subjects
from their allegiance. Besides, Avas it
not Avell knoAvn that those univ^ersities
in France and Spain Avere full of Popish
doctors, Avho Avould desire nothing better
than to delude the minds of unsuspect-
ing Irish Protestants, and so pa'/e the
.vay for the overthroAv of the Protestant
Church, resumption of forfeited estates,
and fulfilment of Pastorini’s prcphecies !
It seems to have been more especially
the “plan” for election of delegates to the
Catholic CoiiA'ention that excited the
alarm and Avrath of the “ Ascendency ”

Immediately on the appearance of this
plan, a general outcry Avas raised against
it ; sedition, tumult, conspiracy, and
treason, Avere ecdioed from county to
county, from grand jury to grand jury.
Some legislators, high in the confidence
of their sovereign, and armed Avith the
influence of station and office, presided
at those meetings, and AA’ere foremost in
arraigning measures, upon the merits of
Avhich in another place and in another
function they Avere finally to determine.

The exaggerated and alarming language
of most of the grand juries imported
that the Catholics of Irelands Avere on the
CA'e of a general insurrection, ready to
hurl the king from his throne, and tear
the Avhole frame of the constitution to
pieces.

The Leitrim grand jury denominated
the plan “ an inflammatory and danger-

ous publication,” and stated “that they
felt it necessary to come forAvard at that
period to declare that they Avere ready to
support, Avith their Ih’-es and fortunes,
their present most valuable constitution
in church and state, and that they Avould
resist to the utmost of their poAver the
attempts of any body of men, hoAvever
numerous, who should presume to threaten
innoA-ation in either.”

The grand jury of the county of Cork
denominated the plan “an unconstitu-
tional proceeding of the most alarming,
dangerous, and seditious tendency — an
attempt to overaAA^e Parliament they
stated their determination to “ xirotect
and defend, Avith their lAes and property,
the present constitution in church and
state.” That of Poscommon, after the
usual epithets of “ alarming, dangerous,
and seditious,” asserted that the jilan
called upon the Avhole body of the Homan
Catholics of Ireland to associate them-
selves in the metropolis of that kingdom
upon the model of the national assembly
of France, Avhich had already plunged that
dcA'oted country into a state of anarchy
and tumult unexampled in any civilised
nation ; they stated it to be “ an attempt
to OATraAve Parliament ;” they mentioned
their serious and sensible alarms for the
existence of their present happy establish-
ment in church and state ; and their de-
termination, “ at the hazard of eA^ery
thing dear to them, to ujAhold and main-
tain the Protestant interest of Ireland.”

The grand jury of Sligo Resolved “ that
they Avould, at all times, and by eA'ery
constitutional means in their power, re-
sist and oppose eA’ery attempt then mak-
ing, or thereafter to be made, by the
liornan Catholics, to obtain their electiA^e
franchise, or any participation in the go-
vernment of tiie country.” And that of
Donegal declared that, though “ they re-
garded the Catholics Avith tenderness, they
Avould maintain, at the hazard of every
thing dear to them, the Protestant in
terest of Ireland.”

The grand jury of Fermanagh, pro-
fessing also “ the Avarmest attachment to
their Koman Catholic brethren,” felt it,
hoAvever, necessary to come forward at
that period to declare that they Avere
“ ready Avith their lives and fortunes to
supi)ort their i)resent inA'aluable constitu-
tion in church and state.” And that
of the County of Derry, after expressing
their apprehensions lest that proceeding
“ might lead to the formation of a hier-
archy (consisting partly of lait}') Avhich
Avould destroy the Protestant Ascendency,
the freedom of the elective franchise, and
the established constitution of this coun-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

203

try,” tendered their lives and fortunes to
support the happy constitution as estab-
lished at the revolution of 1G88. A very
great majority of the leading signatures
affixed to those resolutions, were those of
men either high in the government of the
country, or enjoying lucrative places un-
der it, or possessing extensive borough
interest.

The grand jury of the county of Louth,
with the Speaker of the House of Com-
mons at their head, declared, “ that the
allowing to Roman Catholics the right of
voting for members to serve in Par-
liament, or admitting them to any parti-
cipation in the government of the king-
dom, was incompatible Avith the safety of
the Protestant establishment, the con-
tinuance of the succession to the croAvn in
the illustrious House of Hanover, and
finally tended to shake, if not destroy,
their connection with Great Britain, on
the continuance and inseparability of
which depended the happiness and pros-
perity of that kingdom ; that they would
oppose every attempt towards such a
dangerous innovation, and that they Avould
support Avith their lives and fortunes the
present constitution, and the settlement
of the throne on his majesty’s Protestant
house.” The freeholders of the county
of Limerick charged the Catholic Com-
mittee AAUth an intention to ov( ra ve the
legislature, to force a repeal of he penal
laAvs, and to create a Popish democracy
for their government and direction in
pursuit of Avhatever objects might be
holden out to them by turbulent and
seditious men. They then instructed
their representatiA^es in Parliament, ‘‘ at
all events, to oppose any proposition
AAdiich might be made for extending to
Catholics the right of elective franchise.”
At this meeting the chancellor Avas pre-
present. The corporation of Dublin in
strong terms denied the competency of
Parliament to extend the right of fran-
chise to the Catholics, Avhich they called
“ alienating their most valuable inherit-
ance and roundly asserted against the
fact, that “ the last session of Parliament
left the Roman Catholics in no Avise dif-
ferent from their Protestant felloAv-sub-
jects, save only in the exercise of political
poAver.”

Some of the grand juries indignantly
rejected the proposals made to them of
coming to any resolutions injurious to
their Catholic brethren. Agents had
been employed to tamper Avith eA^ery
grand jury that met during the summer
assizes. Nothing could tend more di-
rectly than this measure of pre-engaging
the sentiments of the country against)

three millions of its inhabitants, to raise
and foment discord and disunion betAveeu
Protestants and Catholics. Counter re-
solutions, ansAvers and replies, addresses
and protestations, Avere published and
circulated in the public papers from some
grand jurymen, and from many different
bodies of Catholics ; several bold and se-
vere jAublications appeared during the
course of the summer, not only from in-
diAuduals of the Catholic body, but from
the friends of their cause amongst the Pro-
testants. It is scarcely questionable but
that the virulent and acrimonious oj)po-
sition raised against the Catholic peti-
tion fora A^ery limited participation in the
elective franchise, enlivened the sense of
their grievances, opened their vieAvs, and
united their energies into a common effort
to procure a general repeal of the Avhole
Penal Code.

The General Committee of the Catho-
lics and the United Irish Society Avere
unavoidably coming closer together. In
a debate of the Committee, jMr. Keogh, a
gentleman of great manliness of character
as AA’ell as power of intellect, fairly said
that, for a late publication (Digest of
the Popery LaAvs), the United Irishmen
and their respected chairman. Mr. Simon
Butler, demanded their Avarmest grati-
tude.*

At that time the United Irish Society
Avas the only association of any kind
Avhich even admitted a Catholic into its
ranks. No Catholic could be in the Whig
Club, nor Avould it CAmn permit the Ca-
tholic question to be agitated there. This
point Avas decided in a singular debate of
the Whig Club in November, 1792, Avhen
Mr. Huband haAung proposed that the
sense of the meeting should be taken
upon the course to be pursued by mem-
bers Avith respect to Catholic claims —

* Mr. Plowden, in an apologetic sort of Ava\', says
upon this occasion — “It was natural for persons
staggering under oppression cordially to grasp
every hand that held out relief.” Nothing can be
more ])rovoking than the affectation of “loyalty” to
the House of Hanover which certain Catholic writers,
previous to emancipation, thought it needful to
make. Plowden, in another place, speaking of the
same publication made by the United Irishmen,
says — “ It would he unfair if the historian were to
represent the transactions of a particular period
from consequences that appeared at a distant inter-
val of time, and the subsequent fate of many of the
actors in the scenes. It is his duty faithfully to re-
present them as they really passed at the time.
Merit and demerit can only attacli from previous or
co-existing circumstances, not from the posthumous
issue engendered in the womb of time by future
base ami unavowed connections. It was not because
an individual was .guilty of treason in the year 1798,
that every previous act or transaction in which that
individual was concerned for the twenty, ten, or five
preceding years was affected with the venom of his
latter crime.”

204

IIISTOliY OF IRELAND.

Some gentlemen decideilly asserted that
they did not think the Catholic question
ought to be mentioned or discussed in the
Wiiig Club. They were averse to their
having any concern in it, and one Avent so
far as to say, that if it Avere admitted to
be debated in that society, he A\muld Avith
his own hand strike his name out of the
list of the members.

On Avhich Mr. A. Hamilton JRoAvan ob-
served, that he Avould be as tenacious as any
other gentleman of remaining in any
society Avhere improper subjects Avere pro-
posed for discussion ; but that for his part,
he Avould not hesitate to strip off his Whig
Club uniform, and to throAv it to the
Avaiter, if the Catholic question Avere
deemed an unlit subject for their discus-
sion.

Mr. W. Brown called the attention of
gentlemen to the purpose of their associa-
tion. They placed themseHes in the
front of the public cause, to further it, not
to stop its further progress ; the second
principle of their declaration Avas, a so-
lemn engagement to support the rights of
the people, etc. Who, said he, are the
people? I dare any gentleman to name
the people of Ireland Avithout including
the Koman Catholics. What ! is it a ques-
tion, shall three millions of Irishmen
continue slaves or obtain their freedom !
Is a question to be deserted by men jjro-
fessing patriotism, professing to redress
the public oppression, pledged to stand
together in defence of their country’s
liberties ? Xo ; it is not.

To desert the cause of the Catholics,
Avould be to desert the principles of their
institution, it Avould be to deser\'e their
calumny throAvn against them by their
enemies, that they Avere an opposition
struggling for poAver, not a band of pa-
triots for the public AA'eal; it Avould rob
their names of honour, their rank and
Avealth of consequence, and it Avould
finally sink them from a station of poli-
tical importance, down to the obscurity
and insignificance of an interested and
impotent party.

On the question being put, Avhether the
Catholic question should be taken into
consideration or not on ’Wednesday fort-
night, it was negatived on a dhusion by
thirteen.

The long talked-off CoiiA'ention of the
Catholics Avas actually held in December
of this year ; the elections of delegates
had been regularly and quietly held, in
pursuance of the plan,” and the first
meeting of the delegates assembled at
Tailors’ Hall, Dublin, on the 2nd of De-
cember, 1792; two hundred delegates
being present.

While this peaceable conA'ention Avas
holding its meetings, another phenomenon
appeared in Dublin, Avhich gave still great
uneasiness, both to the “ xlscendency ”
and to the Castle. The National Guard,
a neAV military body, Avas arrayed and
disciplined in Dublin. They Avore green
uniforms, Avith buttons engraved Avith a
harp, under a cap of liberty, instead of a
croAvn. Their leaders Avere A. H. RoAvan,
and James Napper Tandy; they affected
to address each other by the appellation
of citizen, in imitation of the French.
This corps Avas in high favour AA'ith the
populace, and Avas ahvays cordially greeted
as they appeared in the street or on
parade. GoAmrnment really felt alarm ; a
general insurrection Avas apprehended ;
they pretended to have information of the
])articular nights fixed' for that purpose.
The magistrates, by order of Government,
patrolled the streets Avith bodies of horse
each night. It Avas given out from the
Castle that the custom-house, the post-
office, and the jail Avere the first places to
be attacked, and that the signal for rising
AA*as to have been the pulling doAvn of the
statue of King William in College Green
AA'ith ropes. Many other false rumours of
conspiracies and assassinations Avere set
set afloat. In the meanAvhile the Na-
tional Guards, and all the Volunteer corps
of Dublin, Avere summoned to assemble on
SundaAL the 9th of December, 1792, to
celebrate the A'ictory of the French and
the triumph of uniA'ersal liberty. The
summons began Avith an affectation of
Gallicism — '• Citizen Soldier” HoAveA'er,
the meeting Avas prevented, and GoA^ern-
ment issued a proclamation on the 8th of
December against their assembling. The
National Guards did not assemble, and
the only persons Avho appeared on parade
Avere A. II. RoAvan, J. N. Tandy, and
Carey the printer.

This Catholic ConA'ention and this Na-
tional Guard appeared dangerous in the
eyes of Fitzgibbon (noAV Earl of Clare) ;
the object of his life AA-as the legislath'e
union, and he foresaw, that unless coiiA'en-
tions of delegates and associations of
armed citizens Avere prohibited and pre-
vented by laAv, that great measure neA-er
could be carried. Accordingly his busy
brain Avas already busy in maturing a
series of measures to deprive all Irish-
men, Avhether Protestant or Catholic, of
every means of expressing their Avishes
by delegates, and every means of assert-
ing their rights by arms.

mSTOIlY OF IRELAND.

205

CHAPTER XXVII.

1702—1793.

The Catholic Convention. — Tleconciliation'of differ-
ences amongst the Catholics. — Their deputation to
the king. — Successes of the French fortunate for
the Catholics. — Dumouriez and Jemappes. — Gra-
cious reception of the Catholic deputation. — Bel-
fast mob di awthe carriage of Catholic delegates.
— Secret Committee of the Lords. — Report on De-
fenders and United Irishmen. — Attempt of com-
mittee to connect the two. — Lord Clare creates
“ alarm among the better classes.” — Proclamation
against unlawful assemblies. — Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald.— French Republic declares war against
England. — Large measure of Catholic relief imme-
diately proposed. — Moved by Secretary Hobart. —
Act carried. — Its provisions. — What it yields, and
Avhat it withholds. — Arms and gunpowder act. —
Act against conventions. — Lord Clare the real
author of British policy in Ireland as now estab-
lished.— Effect and intention of the “Convention
Act.” — No such law in England. — Miliiia bill. —
Catholic Committee.' — No reform. — Close of
session.

The Catholic Convention met under
rather favourable auspices. In the course
of the summer a reconciliation or coali-
tion had been generally effected between
the committee and several of the sixty-
four addressers, including bishops. Con-
vinced that his majesty’s ministers in
England were disposed to favour their
pretensions, it was found political in the
body to act in concert, and to this accom-
modating disposition and desire of inter-
nal union is to be attributed the modera-
tion of the public acts of that Convention.
They framed a petition to the king, which
was a firm though modest representation
of their grievances ; it was signed by Dr.
Troy ami Dr. jMoylan on behalf of tliem-
selves ..nd the other Roman Catholic pre-
lates and clergy of Ireland, and by the
several delegates for the different dis-
tricts which they respectively represented.
They then proceeded to choose five dele-
gates to present it to his majesty ; the
choice fell upon Sir Thomas French, Mr.
Ryrne, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereux, and
Mr. Bellew. These gentlemen went by
short seas ; in their road to Donagha-
dee, they passed through Belfast in the
morning, and some of the most respec-
table inhabitants waited upon them at
the Donegal Arms, where they remained
about two hours ; upon their departure,
the populace took their horses from their
carriages, and dragged them through
the town amidst the liveliest shouts
of joy and wishes for their success.* The

* Of tbi.s extraordinary deinonstraticn, never ex-
ampled before, and never imitated since, Wolfe
Tone says ; — “ Whatever effect it might have on tlie
negotiaii< ns in England, it certainly tended to raise
and couhnii tlie hopes of the Catholics at home.

delegates returned these expressions of af-
fection and sympathy, by the most grate-
ful acknowledgments and assurances of
their determination tomaintain that union
which formed the strength of Ireland.
On the 2d of January, 1703. the gentle
men delegated by the Catholics of Ire
land attended the levee at St. James’s,
were introduced to his majesty by Mr.
Dundas, secretary of state for the home
department, and had the honour of pre-
senting their humble petition to his ma-
jesty, who was pleased most graciously
to receive it.

His majesty had his reasons. For-
tunately for the Catholics, England was
at this moment in a condition of extreme
difficulty and peril. She was already
engaged in the coalition of European
powers to crush the new-born Hercules
of France. The French, under Du-
mouriez, had happily driven back the
Prussian invaders from the passes of the
Argonne. Dumouriez had follovred up
his successes, entered Belgium and gained
over the Austrians the glorious victory of
Jemappes. The King of France had
already been removed from his throne to
the Temple prison ; and on the very day
when the King of England was so gra-
ciously receiving the Catholic delegates,
that unhappy French monarch was await-
ing his trial, sentence, and execution at
the hands of his peonie ; all of rvlrich took
place a few days afterwards. This event
was to be the signal for England to enter
actively into the war. Ever since August
of last year the British Court had refused
all communication with M. Chauvelin,
the French envoy, and he was finally
dismissed from England immediately
on the arrival of news of King Louis’
execution. War, therefore, was now in-
evitable, and w'ar on such a scale and
against such a foe as would tax the
utmost energies and resources of Great
Britain. It was determined accordingly
to endeavour to purchase the three mil-
lions of Irish Catholics, who make such
excellent recruiting material ; so lliat,
instead of having Irish brigades against
them, they might have Irish regiments
for them. It was also a part of this
policy to detach the Catholics from the

‘ Let our delegates,’ said they, ‘if they are refused,
return by the same route.’ To those who look be-
yond the surface it was an interesting spectacle, and
pregnant with material consequences, to see the
Dissenter of the North drawing, with Ids own
hands, the Catholic of the South in triumph through
what may be denominated the capital of Presby-
terianism. However repugnant it might be to the
wishes of the British minister, it was a wholesome
suggestion to his prudence, and when he scanned
the whole business in his mind, was probably not
dismissed from his contemplation.”

206

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

United Irishmen, to disgust them with
“ French principles,” and predispose them
to look favourably on the Legislative
Union, The delegates returned from
London, in the complacent language of
Mr. Flowden, “ the welcome heralds of
the benign countenance and reception
they had received from the father of his
people.”

On the 10th of January, 1792, the Irish
Parliament met. The speech from the
throne recommended attention to the
claims of the Catholics. The House of
Lords very early in the session appointed
a secret committee to inquire into the
state of the nation, with special reference
to the troubles in the North between
Peep-of-Day Boys and Defenders. The
Secret Committee made a most extraordi-
nary report, in which thej" appear to find
no criminal rioters in the North except
the poor Defenders. “ All, so far as the
committee could discover, of the Koman
Catholic persuasion, poor ignorant labour-
ing men, sworn to secrecy, and impressed
with an opinion that they were assisting
the Catholic cause.” The committee fur-
ther endeavoured to connect in some way
with those agrarian disturbers, the politi-
cal demonstrations of the United Irish-
men at Belfast and other towns. They
report Avith high indignation ; —

“ That an unusual ferment had for some
months past disturbed scA'eral parts of the
North, particularly the tOAvn of Belfast
and the county of Antrim ; it Avas kei)t
up and encouraged by seditious papers
and pamphlets of the most dangerous
tendency, printed at A^ery cheap and in-
considerable rates in Dublin and Belfast,
Avhich issued almost daily from certain
societies of men or clubs in both those
places, calling themselves committees
under various descriptions, and carrjdng
on a constant correspondence Avith each
other. These publications Avere circu-
lated amongst the people Avith the utmost
industry, and appeared to be calculated
to defame the Government and Parlia-
ment, and to render the people dissatisfied
Avith their condition and Avith their laAvs
The conduct of the French was shamefidly
extolled, and recommended to the public
A'icAv as an example for imitation ; hopes
and expectations had been held up of
their assistance by a descent uiAon that
kingdom, and prayers had been offered
up at Belfast from the pulpit for the suc-
cess of their arms, in the presence of
military associations, Avhich had been
newly levied and arrayed in that toAvn.
A body of men associated themselves in
Dublin, under the title of the First Na-
tional Battalion : their uniform Avas

copied from the French, green turned up
Avith Avhite, Avhite Avaistcoats and striped
trousers, gilt buttons, impressed Avith a
harp and letters importing ‘First Na-
tional Battalion,’ no croAvn, but a device
over the harp of a cap of liberty upon a
pike ; tAvo pattern coats had been left at
tAvo shops in Dublin. SeA’eral bodies of
men had been collected in different parts
of the North, armed and disciplined under
officers chosen by themselves, and com-
posed mostly of the loAvest classes of the
people. These bodies Avere daily increas-
ing in numbers and force, they had ex-
erted their best endeaAmurs to procure
military men of experience to act as their
officers, some of them having expressly
stated that there Avere men enough to be
had, but that officers Avere Avhat they
Avanted. Stands of arms and gunpoAvder
to a very large amount, much above the
common consumption, had been sent
Avithin the last few months to Belfast and
NeAA-ry, and orders given for a much
greater quantity, Avhich it appeared could
be Avanted only for military operations.
At Belfast, bodies of men in arms AA'ere
drilled and exercised for seA’eral hours
almost eA^ery night by candle-light, and
attempts had been made to seduce the
soldiery, Arhich, much to the honour of
the king’s forces, had proA’ed ineffectual.
The declared object of these militar}^
bodies Avas to procure a reform of Parlia-
ment ; but the obvious intention of most
of them appeared to be to overaAve the
Parliament and the Government, and to
dictate to both. The committee forbore
mentioning the names of several persons,
lest it should in any manner affect any
criminal prosecution, or invoh’e the per-
sonal safety of an\ man Avho had come
forAvard to giA'e them information. The
result of their inquiries Avas, that in their
opinion it Avas incompatible Avith the pub-
lic safety and tranquillity of that king-
dom to permit bodies of men in arms to
assemble Avhen they pleased Avithout any
legal authority ; and that the existence of
a self-created representative body of any
description of the king’s subjects, taking
upon itself the goA'ernment of them, and
leA’ying taxes or subscriptions, etc./’ ought
not to be permitted.

It is A'ery easy to see the object of this
report . it Avas simply Lord Clare’s method
of preparing the Avay for his coercion
acts, AA'hich Avere to apply not only to the
Defenders, but also to the United Irish-
men and to the Catholic Convention itself.

The policy adopted tOAvards the Catho-
lics at that time took the form Avhich it
has Avorn ever since, and Avhich may be
described in four words — to conciliate the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

207

rich and to coerce the poor. This extra-
vagant report of the Lords’ committee,
giving so overcharged a picture of the
insurrectionary spirit of the North, v as
in order to create “ alarm among the
better classes,” the uniform preparative
for coercion and oppression in Ireland.

On the 31st of January the House of
Commons took into consideration a pro-
clamation of the lord-lieutenant and privy
council, dated the 8th December last, for
dispersing all unlawful assemblies ; and
Lord Headfort moved a vote of thanks to
the viceroy for this proclamation “ to
preserve domestic tranquillity from those
whose declared objects Avere tumult, dis-
affection, and sedition” This occasioned
some debate; but the address passed
without a division. This proceeding of
the House proves that the great Govern-
ment majority in the House, as Avell as
the Lords, were in full concurrence Avith
the GoA'ernment in faAmur of coercion.
It is further interesting from an incident
AA’hich befell at the close of the debate —
Lord EdAvard Fitzgerald, in a v^ery vehe-
ment tone, declared, “ I giv'e my most
hearty disapprobation to that address, for
I do think that the lord-lieutenant and
the majority of this House are the Avorst
subjects the king has.” A loud cry
of “ to the bar,” and “ take doAvn his
Avords,” immediately echoed from OA'ery
part of the House. The House Avas cleared
in an instant, and strangers Avere not re-
admitted for nearly three hours.

He Avas admitted to explain himself,
and on his explaining, the House

“ Resolved, nem. con.. That the excuse
offered by the Right Hon. EdAvard Fitz-
gerald, commonly called Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, for the said Avords so spoken,
is unsatisfactory and insufficient ;” and
he Avas ordered to attend at the bar on
the next day, Avhen his apology Avas re-
ceiA^ed, though not Avithout a division
upon its sufficiency ; for receiving it, 135;
against it, G6.— (12 Par. Deb., p. 82.)

]\Ir, Grattan also expressed himself Avith
some indignation in this debate, on the
classing up the remnant of his old Volun-
teers along with such seditious company
as United Irishmen and National Guards;
for Mr. Secretary Hobart had read to the
House, as part of the outrageous proceed-
ings Avhich had dictated the strong mea-
sure of the proclamation, a certain sum-
mons of the corps of goldsmiths, calling
on the delegates of that corps to assemble
and celebrate the retreat of the Duke of
Brunswick (from Va’my), and the French
victory in the Loav Countries (Jemappes).
Mr. Grattan AA^as soon to learn that, in the
application of the neAv laws Avhich Avere

noAv to be enacted, the remnant of the
classic old Volunteers was to be held no
more sacred than the most republican
United Irish club, or the poorest lodge of
Defenders.

On the 1st of February, the French
Republic declared Avar against England
(Avhich Avas noAV knoAvn to be the very
head and heart of the coalition against
France) ; and on the llth of that month
the Irish secretary, Mr. Hobart, presented
a petition from some Catholics, and de-
scribed at length the measure Avhich he
intended to introduce. A fcAv days after,
he brought in his “ Relief Bill,” and had
it read a first time. It Avas opposed by
Mr. Ogle, and by the famous Dr. Duigenan.
Throughout its passage it Avas supported
by the Court party, because it aa'us a Court
measure ; and Mr. Grattan, Mr. Curran,
and most of the opposition supported it, of
course. Dr. Duigenan raked up several
times all the most hideous accusations that
ever bigotry had in\'ented, and ignorance
believed against Rapists, in order to op-
pose the grant of any relief to such mis-
creants. On the second reading, Mr. G.
Ponsonby and Mr. La Touche spoke
against it. When the bill Avas in com-
mittee, Mr, George Knox, in a liberal and
able speech, moved that the committee
might be empoAvered to receive a clause
to admit Roman Catholics to sit and vote
in the House of Commons. Major Doyle
seconded the motion, Avhich Avas strongly
supported by Mr. Daly, Col. Hutchinson,
Mr, M. Smith, Mr, John O’Neil, IMr.
Hardy, and some other gentlemen friendly
to Catholic emancipation ; it Avas, hoAv-
ever, rejected upon a division by 1G3
against 69.

The bill finally passed both Houses, and
receiA^ed the royal assent on the 9th of
April. This act, AAdiich Avas received Avith
so much gratitude, and Avas extolled as
such a triumph of liberality, enables Ca-
tholics to A"ote for members of Parlia-
ment— that is, for Protestant members
and none other ; admits them to the bar — •
that is, the outer bar — all the honours and
high xJaces of the profession being re-
served for Protestants ; enables them to
vote for municipal officers — that is, Pro-
testant officers e.xclusively ; permits them
to possess arms, provided they possess a
certain freehold and personal estate, and
take certain oaths, neither of AAdiich con-
ditions applied to Protestants ; alloAvs
them to serve on juries, but not to sit on
parish A'estries ; admits them, under cer-
tain restrictions, to hold military and
naval commissions, certain of the higher
grades being excepted — and it subjects
the exercise of most of these neiv privi-

208

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

legos to the taking of a most insulting and
humiliating oath. As this act (33 Geo.
III., c. 21.) settled for thirty-six years
the whole condition and relations of the
Catholics, it is here given in full . —

“ 33 Geo. III., c. xxi.

Act for the Relief of His Majestfs
Popish or Roman Catholic Subjects of
Ireland.

“ Whereas, various acts of Parliament
liave been passed imposing on his ma-
jesty’s subjects professing the Homan
Catholic religion many restraints and
disabilities to which other subjects of
this realm are not liable ; and from the
peaceable and loyal demeanour of his
majesty’s Popish or Roman Catholic
subjects, it is fit that such restraints
and disabilities shall be discontinued :
Be it therefore enacted, by the king’s
most excellent majesty, by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords
spiritual and temporal, and Commons in
this present Parliament assembled, and
by the authority of the same, That his
majesty’s subjects being Papists or per-
sons professing the Popish or Roman Ca-
tholic religion, or married to Papists or
persons professing the Popish or Roman
Catholic religion, or educating any of
their children in that religion, shall not
be liable or subject to any penalties, for-
feitures, disabilities, or incapacities, or to
any laws for the limitation, charging, or
discovering of their estates and jiroperty,
real and personal, or touching the acquir-
ing of property or securities affecting
property ; save such as his majesty’s sub-
jects of the Protestant religion are liable
and subject to ; and that such parts of
all oaths as are required so be taken by
persons in order to qualify themselves for
voting at election of members to serv'e in
Parliament; and also such parts of all
oaths required to be taken by persons
voting at elections for members to serve
in Parliament as import to deny that the
person taking the same is a Papist, or
married to a Papist, or educates his chil-
dren in the Popish religion, shall not
hereafter be required to be taken by any
voter, but shall be omitted by the person
administering the same ; and that it shall
not be necessary, in order to entitle a
Papist, or pei*son professing the Popish or
Roman Catholic religion, to vote at an
election of members to serve in Parlia-
ment, that he should at, or previous to
his voting, take the oaths of allegiance
and abjuration, any statute now in force
to the contrary of any of the said matters
in any tvise notv.dthstanding.

“ II. Provided ahva.ijs, and be it further

enacted. That all Papists, or persons pro-
fessing the Popish or Roman Catholic
religion, who may claim to have a right
of voting for members to serve in Parlia-
ment, or of voting for magistrates in any
city, town corporate, or borough, within
this kingdom, be hereby required to per-
form all qualifications, registries, and
other requisites, tvhich are now required
of his majesty’s Protestant subjects, in
like cases, by any law or laws now of
force in this kingdom, save and except
such oaths and parts of oaths as are herein
before excepted.

III. And provided always. That nothing
herein before contained shall extend, or
be construed to extend, to repeal or alter
any law or act of Parliament nowin force,
by which certain qualifications are re-
quired to be performed by persons enjoy-
ing any offices or places of trust under his
majesty, his heirs and successors other
than as hereinafter is enacted.

“ IV. Provided also, That nothing nerein
contained, shall extend, or be construed to
extend, to give Papists, or persons pro-
fessing the Popish religion, a right to vote
at any parish vestry for levying of money
to rebuild or repair any parish church, or
respecting the demising or disposal of the
income of any estate belonging to any
church or parish, or for the salary of the
parish clerk, or at the election of any
churchwarden.

V. Provided always. That nothing con-
tained ill this act shall extend to, or be
construed to affect, any action or suit now
depending, which shall have been brought
or instituted previous to the commence-
ment of this session of Parliament.

“ VI. Provided also. That nothing herein
contained shall extend to authorize any
Papist, or person professing the Popish or
Roman Catholic religion, to have, or keep
in his hands or possession, any arms,
armour, ammunition, or any warlike
stores, sword-blades, barrels, locks or
stocks of guns, or fire-arms, or to exempt
such person from any forfeiture, or penalty
inflicted by any act respecting arms,
armour, or amsiunition, in the hands or
possession of any Papist, or respecting
Papists having or keeping such warlike
stores, save and except Papists, or per-
sons of the Roman Catholic religion,
seized of a freehold estate of one hundred
liounds a year, or possessed of a i:er-
soi.al estate of one thousand pounds or
upwards, who are hereby authorized to
keep arms and ammunition as Protestants
now by law may ; and also, save and
except Papists or Roman Catholics pos-
sessing a freehold estate of ten pounds
yearly value, and less than one hundred

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

209

pounds, or a personal estate of three hun-
dred and less than one thousand pounds,
who shall have, at the session of the peace
in the county in Avhich they reside, taken
the oath of allegiance prescribed to be
taken by an act passed in the thirteenth
and fourteenth years of his present ma-
jesty’s reign, entitled, '"An act to enable his
majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion., to
testify their allegiance to him; and also, in
open court, swear and subscribe an affi-
davit that they are possessed of a free-
hold estate yielding a clear yearly profit
to the person making the same of ten
pounds, or a personal property of three
hundred pounds above his just debts,
specifying therein the name and nature
of such freehold, and nature of such per-
sonal property, which affidavit shall be
carefully preserved by the clerk of the
peace, who shall have for his trouble a fee
of sixpence, and no more, for every such
affidavit ; and the person making such
affidavit, and possessing such property,
may keep and use arms and ammunition
as Protestants may, so long as they shall
respectively possess a property of the
annual value of ten pounds and upwards,
if .freehold, or the value of three hundred
pounds if personal, any statute to the con-
trary notwithstanding.

“VII. And he it enacted, That it shall
and may be lawful for Papists, or persons
13rofessing the Popish or Ivoman Catholic
religion, to hold, exercise, and enjoy all
civil and military offices, or places of trust
or profit under his majesty, his heirs and
successors, in this kingdom ; and to hold
or take degrees, or any professorship in,
or be masters or fellows of, any college to
be hereafter founded in this kingdom,
provided that such college shall be a mem-
ber of the University of Dublin, and shall
not be founded exclusively for the educa-
tion of Papists, or persons professing the
Popish or Roman Catholic religion, nor
consist exclusively of masters, fellows, or
other persons to be named or elected on
the foundation of such college, being per-
sons professing the Popish or Roman Ca-
tholic religion ; or to hold any office or
place of trust in, and to be a member of,
any lay-body corporate, except the College
of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of
Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin, without
taking and subscribing the oaths of alle-
giance, supremacy, or abjuration, or
making or subscribing the declaration
required to be taken, made, and sub-
scribed, to enable any such person to hold
and enjoy any of such places, and without
receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper, according to the rights and cere-
monies of the Church of Ireland, any law.

statute, or byelaw of any corporation to
the contrary notwithstanding ; provided
that ev^ery such person shall take and
subscribe the oath appointed by the said
act passed in the thirteenth and four-
teenth years of his majesty’s reign, en-
titled, ‘ An act to enable his majesty’s
subjects, of whatever persuasion, to testify
their allegiance to him;’ and also the
oath and declaration following, that is to
say :

“ ‘ I, A. B., do hereby declare, that I
do profess the Roman Catholic religion.
I, A. B., do swear that I do abjure, con-
demn, and detest, as unchristian and im-
pious, the principle that it is lawful to
murder, destroy, or any ways injure any
person whatsoever, for, or under the pre-
tence of, being a heretic ; and I do declare
solemnly, before God, that I believe that
no act in itself unjust, immoral, or wicked,
can ever be justified or excused by or
under pretence or colour that it was done
either for the good of the church, or in
obedience to any ecclesiastical power
whatsoever. I also declare that it is not
an article of the Catholic faith, neither
am I thereby required to believe or pro-
fess, that the Pope is infallible, or that I
am bound to obey an order in its own
nature immoral, though the Pope or any
ecclesiastical power should issue or direct
such order, but, on the contrary, I hold
that it would be sinful in me to pay any
respect or obedience thereto , I further
declare, that I do not believe that any sin
whatsoever committed by me can be for-
given at the mere will of any Pope, or
any priest, or of any person whatsoever ;
but that sincere sorroAv for past sins, a
firm and sincere resolution to avoid future
guilt, and to atone to God, are previous
and indispensable requisites to establish
a well-founded expectation of forgive-
ness, and that any person who receives
absolution without these previous re-
quisites, so far from obtaining thereby
any remission of his sins, incurs the
additional guilt of violating a sacra-
ment ; and I do swear, that I will defend
to the utmost of my power the settle-
ment and arrangement of property in this
country as established by the laws now in
being ; I do hereby disclaim, disavoAv,
and solemnly abjure any intention to sub-
vert the present church establishment for
the purpose of substituting a Catholic
establishment in its stead ; and I do so-
lemnly swear that I will not exercise any
privilege, to which I am or may become
entitled, to disturb and weaken the Pro-
testant religion and Protestant govern-
ment in this kingdom. So help me God.’

“ VIII. And be it enacted, That Papists,
O

210

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

or persons professing the Popish or Eo-
man Catholic religion, may be capable of
being elected professors of medicine upon
the foundation of Sir Patrick Dunn, any
law or statute to the contrary notwith-
standing.

“ IX. Provided always, and he it enacted,
Vhat nothing herein contained shall ex-
tend, or be construed to extend, to enable
any person to sit or vote in either House
of Parliament, or to hold, exercise, or
enjoy the office of lord-lieutenant, lord-
deputy, or other chief governor or go-
vernors of this kingdom, lord high chan-
cellor or keeper, or commissioner of the
great seal of this kingdom, lord high
treasurer, chancellor of the exchequer,
chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench,
or Common Pleas, lord chief baron of
the Court of Exchequer, justice of the
Court of King’s Bench or Common
Pleas, or baron of the Court of Ex-
chequer, judge of the High Court of
Admiralty, master or keeper of the rolls,
secretary of state, keeper of the privy
seal, vice-treasurer, or deputy vice-trea-
surer, teller and cashier of the Exchequer,
or auditor-general, lieutenant or governor,
or custos rotulorum of counties, secretary
to the lord lieutenant, lord-deputy, or
other chief governor or governors of this
kingdom, member of his majesty’s most
honourable privy council, prime sergeant,
attorney-general, solicitor- general, second
and third sergeants-at-law, or king’s
counsel, masters in chancery, provost or
fellow of the College of the Holy and Un-
divided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near
Dublin; postmaster-general, master, and
lieutenant-general of his majesty’s ord-
nance, commander-in-chief of his majesty’s
forces, generals on the staff, and sheriffs
and sub-sheriffs of any county in this king-
dom , or any office contrary to the rules,
orders, and directions made and established
by the lord-lieutenant and council in pur-
suance of the act passed in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth years of King
Charles the Second, entitled, ‘ An act for
the explaining of some doubts arising
upon an act entitled. An act for the bet-
ter execution of his majesty’s gracious
declaration for the settlement of this
kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of
the several interests of adventurers, sol-
diers, and other his subjects there, and
for making some alterations of, and addi-
tions unto, the said act, for the more
speedy and effectual settlement of this
kingdom,’ unless he shall have taken,
made, and subscribed the oaths and de-
clarations, and performed the several re-
quisites, which by any law heretofore
made, and now of force, are required to

enable any person to sit or vote, or to*
hold, exercise, and enjoy the said offices
respectively.

“ X. Provided also, and he it enacted.
That nothing in this act contained shall
enable any Papist, or person professing
the Popish or Koman Catholic religion, to
exercise any right of presentation to any
ecclesiastical benefice whatsoever.

“ XL And he it enacted. That no Papist,
or person professing the Popish or Eoman
Catholic religion, shall be liable or subject
to any penalty for not attending divine
service on the Sabbath day, called Sun-
day, in his or her parish church.

“XII. Provided also, and he it enacted.
That nothing herein contained shall be
construed to extend to authorise any
Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest,
to celebrate marriage between Protestant
and Protestant, or between any person
who hath been, or professed himself or
herself to be, a Protestant at any time
Avithin tAvelve months before such cele-
bration of marriage, and a Papist, unless
such Protestant and Papist shall haA-^e
been first married by a clergyman of the
Protestant religion, and that every Popish
priest, or reputed Popish priest, Avho shall
celebrate any marriage betAveen tAvo Pro-
testants, or between any such Protestant
and Papist, unless such Protestant and
Papist shall have been first married by a
clergyman of the Protestant religion,
shall forfeit the sum of five hundred
pounds to his majesty upon conA'iction
thereof.

“XIII. And whereas it may be expedi-
ent, in case his majesty, his heirs and
successors, shall be pleased so to alter the
statutes of the College of the Holy and
Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, and of
the UniA'ersity of Dublin, as to enable
persons professing the Eoman Catholic
religion to enter into, or to take degrees
in, the said university, to remove any
obstacle Avhich now exists by statute laAv ,
he it enacted. That from and after the first
day of June, one thousand seA^en hundred
and ninety-three, it shall not be necessary
for any person upon taking any of the
degrees usually conferred by the said uni-
versity, to make or subscribe any declar-
ation, or to take any oath save the oaths
of allegiance and abjuration, any laAv or
statute to the contrary notAAUthstanding.

“ XIV Provided always, That no Pa-
pist or Eoman Catholic, or person profes-
sing the Eoman Catholic or Popish reli-
gion, shall take any benefit by or under
this act, unless he shall ha Am first taken
and subscribed the oath and declaration
in this act contained and set forth, and
also the said oath appointed by the said-

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

211

act passed in the thirteenth and four-
teenth years of his majesty’s reign, en-
titled, 'An act to enable his majesty’s
subjects, of whatever persuasion, to tes-
tify their allegiance to him,’ in some one
of his majesty’s four courts in Dublin, or
at the general sessions of the peace, or at
any adjournment thereof to be holden for
the county, city, or borough wherein such
Papist or Koman Catholic, or person pro-
fessing the Koman Catholic or Popish
religion, doth inhabit or dwell, or before
the going judge or judges of assize in the
county wherein such Papist or Koman
Catholic, or person professing the Roman
Catholic or Popish religion, doth inhabit
and dwell, in open court.

“ XV. Provided always, and he it enacted,
That the names of such persons as shall
so take and subscribe the said oath and
declaration, with their titles and additions,
shall be entered upon the rolls, for that
purpose to be appointed by said respec-
tive courts ; and that the said rolls once
in every year shall be transmitted to,
and deposited in, the Rolls Office in this
kingdom, to remain amongst the records
thereof, and the masters or keepers of
the rolls in this kingdom, or their law-
ful deputy or deputies, are hereby em-
powered and required to give and deliver
to such person or persons so taking and
subscribing the said oaths and declara-
tion, a certificate or certificates of such
person or persons liaving taken and sub-
scribed the said oaths and declaration, for
eacli of which certificates the sum of one
shilling, and no more, shall be paid.

“ XVI. And he it further provided and
enacted. That from and after the first day
of April, one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-three, no freeholder, burgess, free-
man, or inhabitant of this kingdom, being
a Papist or Koman Catholic, or person
professing the Roman Catholic or Popish
religion, shall at any time be capable of
giving his vote for the electing of any
knight or knights of any shire or county
Avithin this kingdom, or citizen or burgess
to serve in any Parliament, until he shall
have first produced and shown to the high
sheriff of the said county, or his deputy
or deputies, at any election of a knight
or knights of the said shire, and to the
respective chief officer or officers of any
city, borough, or town corporate to Avhom
the return of any citizen or burgess to
serve in Parliament doth or shall repec-
tively belong at the election of any citi-
zen or burgess to serve in Parliament,
such certificate of his having taken and
subscribed the said oath and declaration,
either from the Rolls Office or from the
proper officer of the court in which the

said oaths and declaration shall be taken
and subscribed ; and such person being a
freeholder, freeman, burgess, or inhabit-
ant so producing and showing such cer-
tificate, shall be then permitted to vote as
amply and fully as any Protestant free-
holder, freeman, burgess, or inhabitant of
such county, city, borough, or tOAvn-cor-
porate, but not otherAvise.”

This InAA”-, it may be thought, saved
tolerably Avell the main privileges of the
odious “Ascendency,” and still left the
tAvo sects or tAvo nations in the relative
position of a superior and an inferior
caste: but the requirements of English
policy at this time Avere absolute and
undeniable. It Avas, hoAveA’er, felt by the
thoroughgoing Protestants of Ireland to be
a sore humiliation thus at last to have to
acknoAvledge the civil existence of Papists
at all, and tliat Papists no longer breathed
altogether by “ connivance.” But the
irritation of the Protestant interest Avas
soothed by certain other measures Avhich
the Government carried through this
session — the GunpoAvder Act and the
Convention Act, The GunpoA\aler Act,
entitled “ An Act to prevent the importa-
tion of Arms, GunpoAvaler, and Ammuni-
tion into this Kingdom, and the removing
and keeping of GunpoAvder, Arms, and
Ammunition AAuthout license,” contained
very oppressive provisions, authorising
magistrates and police to make searches
for arms ; and may be called the first of
the regular series of “Arms Acts” Avith
AA’hich Ireland is so familiar doAvn to the
present day. It AA^as not at all opposed in
Parliament ; indeed, like all the other
Arms Acts, it purported to be a tem-
porary measure, to be in force only until
the 1st of January, 1794, and the end of
then next session of Parliament. The
Government i)retended that it AA^as needed
just at that time to defeat and suppress
the seditions conspiracy AAdiich Lord Clare
and tlie Committee of the Lords had dis-
covered, but AA'liich did not then exist at
all ; and AA'hich afterAvards Avas occasioned,
or indeed rendered necessary, by the
atrocious abuse of the very coerciAm laAvs
Avhich Avere said to be intended to defeat
it.

But the second of these two acts, the
Convention Act, Lord Clare’s special and
favourite measure, stamps that nobleman
as the true author and creator of British
policy in Ireland, from his OAvn time until
this hour. The bill AA'as introduced into
the House of Lords by Lord Clare him-
self. Its real and plain object AA^as to
prevent the prevalence of the successful
example of the Catholic Convention, and

212

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

to anticipate a Convention which it was
alleged that the United Irish Society was
about to convene at Athlone.

This act (33 Geo. III., c. 29) to prevent
the election or appointment of unlawful
assemblies, under pretence of preparing or
presenting public petitions or other ad-
dresses to his majesty or the Parliament,
recites, that the election or appointment
of assemblies, purporting to represent the
people, or any description of the people,
under pretence of preparing or presenting
petitions, complaints, remonstrances, and
declarations, and other addresses to the
king, or to both or either Houses of Par-
liament, for alteration of matters estab-
lished by law, for redress of alleged
grievances in church and state, may be
made use of to serve the ends of factious
and seditious persons, to the violation of
the public peace, and the great and mani-
fest encouragement of riot, tumult, and
disorder ; and it enacts that all such
assemblies, committees, or other bodies of
persons elected, or otherwise constituted
or appointed are unlawful assemblies, and
that all persons giving or publishing
notice of the election to be made of such
persons or delegates, or attending, or vot-
ing, or acting therein by any means, are
guilty of a high misdemeanour. The act
concludes widi a declaration, “ that no-
thing in it shall impede the undoubted
right of his majesty’s subjects to petition
the king or Parliament for redress of any
public or private grievance.”

This measure gave rise to long and
acrimonious debates. When it was in
committee Mr. Grattan made a vigorous
speech against it : his chief objection to
it was, that it was a false declaration of
law, and deprived the subject of his con-
stitutional right of petitioning effectually
against grievances by rendering the pre-
vious measure of consultation and deli-
beration criminal. Especially he was
indignant that it by implication con-
demned all previous conventions of dele-
gates which had ever been held, including
his own Volunteer Convention. He said,
— “ This bill is said to be an expedient to
restore peace ; why then is it a reflection ?
Why do the preamble and declaration
pronounce every man who has been a
delegate, all the Volunteers, the delegates
at Dungannon, the delegates of the con-
vention, the committee of the laAvyers’
corps, and the corps that appointed that
committee; the committee of the Catho-
lics, their late conventions, and all the
Catholics who appointed that convention
— titat is, the Avhole Catholic body —
offenders, men guilty of an unlav/ful
assembly, and this moment liable to be

prosecuted ! For so much has the bill in
object : not the peace of the country, but
reflection on great bodies, the gratification
of spleen at the expense of the constitu-
tion, by voting false doctrine into law,
and the brightest passages of your history
into unlawful assemblies. Gentlemen have
conceived this bill an expedient to quell
insurgents : let them read the bill. It
is not a riot act ; it does not go against
riots that are, but conventions that are
not. The title of the bill, as first brought
in, was to prevent riots and tumults aris-
ing from conventions ; but as the bill had
nothing to say to riots, and no riots ap-
peared to have arisen from conventions,
such title was in decency dropped, and the
object of the bill was now professed to be an
act against conventions. Gentlemen said
a national convention at Athlone was in-
tended. He did believe that such a one
had been intended some time ago, but
that then it was not so; or if then in-
tended, that it would be trifling and con-
temptible. His objection to the bill Avas,
that it was a trick, making a supposed
National Convention at Athlone, in 1793,
a pretext for preventing delegation for
ever.”

All opposition was vain. The Govern-
ment had fabricated an alarm purposely
to get this act passed. Mr. Secretary
Hobart’s remarks on the occasion of this
debate, expose clearly enough the Avhole
policy of the Government : —

Mr. Hobart declared, nothing gave him
more pain than that the debate on this bill
should have extended to such a length, or
that it should, on the close of the session,
create anything like a disunion of senti-
ment. He declared that nothing but the
very alarming state to which the country
had been reduced by a spirit of popular
commotion excited by conventions, usurp-
ing the privileges of representation, and
assuming to control Parliament, could
have induced him to consent to the intro-
duction of this bill; and e\'en the noble-
man Avho had brought it into the other
House, before he had done so had con-
sidered it OA^er and over again, and did
not bring it forAA'ard until absolute neces-
sity called for some effectual measure to
stem the torrent of sedition, at a time
Avhen AA-rits had been issued by the society
called United Irishmen, for the purpose
of assembling the convention at Athlone,
and under a conviction that if Parliament
should break up AA'ithout adopting the bill,
Avhich in his idea never did, nor never Avas
intended to meddle Avith the constitutional
rights of the people, the constitution itself
might be subverted before Parliament
could be assembled

IIISTOin’ OK IKELAND.

213

The act passed: on the final division, the
teller in favour of tlie passage was Arthur
Wellesley. There is not, and never was,
any such law in England. From that day
to this, it has effectually prevented the
people of Ireland from deliberating in an
orderly and authoritative manner, by
means of accredited delegates, upon their
own affairs. It was afterwards the rock
ahead which confronted O’Connell in all
his agitation. This laAv it was which
prevented his calling together the pro-
mised “ Council of Three Hundred,” and
left him only the alternative of inorganic
“ Monster meetings” — which latter indeed
were also made criminal by a prudent
interpretation of law

In this same session of Parliament,
and before the passage of the Catholic
Kelief bill, there was passed a new
Militia bill, introduced by Lord Hills-
borough, to establish the militia, as his
lordship said, “as nearly as circum-
stances -would permit, on the same plan
as that of England.” The whole num-
ber of men he proj)Osed to be 16,000, upon
a rough estimate 500 for each county.
The new Militia law was one of the most
efficient of that series of measures noAv
secured by the Government to enable them
at any time to crush down every popular
movement which was not to their own
taste.

The General Committee of the Catholics
had adjourned after dispatching their
delegates to the king, and they had left a
sub-committee sitting in Dublin, with
power to act for them between their rising
and their next meeting ; but they made a
material alteration in its constitution, by
associating to the twelve members who
then formed it, the Avhole of the country
delegates, each of whom Avas henceforAvard
to be, ipso facto, a member thereof. They
then resolved, unanimously, that they
Avould reassemble Avhen duly summoned
by the sub-committee, Avho Avere invested
Avitli poAvers for that purpose. “ We aaTII
attend,” cried a member from a remote
county (O' Gorman, of Mayo), “if Ave are
summoned to meet across the Atlantic.”

The sub-committee had enteied into
a series of negotiations AA'ith Mr. Secre-
tary Hobart respecting the details of
their Relief bill. But although the origi-
nal demand in the address to the king
was for general relief, including admis-
sion to both Houses of Parliament, it
soon became evident to the minister
that they Avould take much less. W olfe
Tone, in his indignant narrative of these
proceedings, says: —

“ In the first intervieAv Avith the Irish
minister, the two Houses of Parliament

Avere at once given up, and the question
began to be, not how much must be con-
ceded, but hoAV much might be Avithheld.
So striking a change did not escape the
vigilance of the administration ; they in-
stantly recovered from the panic A\diich
had led them into such indiscreet, and, as
it noAv appeared, unnecessary concessions
at the opening of Parliament ; they dex-
terously seduced the Catholics into the
strong ground of negotiation, so Avell
knoAvn to themseh^es, so little to their
adversaries ; they procrastinated, and they
distinguished, they started doubts, they
pleaded difficulties ; the measure of relief
Avas gradually curtailed, and, during the
tedious and anxious progress of discus-
sion, AAdiilst the Catholic mind, their hopes
and fears, Avere unremittingly intent on
the,' progress of their bill, Avhich Avas ob-
viously and designedly suspended, the acts
already commemorated (Militia, Gun-
powder, and Convention Acts) Avere driven
through both Houses Avith the utmost
impetuosity, and Avith the most cordial
and unanimous concurrence of all parties,
received the royal assent.”

In fact, the leading Catholics, AA’hetlier
prelates or landed proprietors, seemed to
l3e, or affected to be, quite satisfied Avith
the poor relief they had obtained : and Ave
find henceforth less and less disposition
on their part to join in, or to countenance,
the ultra-liberal views of the United
Irishmen.* In truth, there aauis no body
of men in the three kingdoms more
naturally disposed to abhor “ French
principles ” than the Catholic peers, gen-
try, and bishops, Avho thought their own
interests safer under the British Govern-
ment than in the liberty and equality of a
republic on the French model. The ablest
Avorkers, it is true, on the General Com-
mittee, John Keogh, IM-Neven, and Rich-
ard M‘Cormick, joined the United Irish
Society, Avhich had not yet become revolu-
tionary, republican, and separatist, but
Avhich Avas soon to be forced into that
extreme position.

The same session of Parliament of 1 793
saAv the passage of some measures AAdiich
had been amongst the favourite objects
of the opposition for years. It seemed,

* One of the most striking: indications of the suc-
cess Avhich attended the policy of Government to
attach to them the leading Catholics, and especially
the bishops, and so keep the Catholic body out of
the United Irish ranks, appears in the tone of the
pastoral letters of various prelates to their Hocks, iu
Avhich they Avarned them against “ nefarious de-
signs ” and lawless persons. From this moment,
also, the laborious Mr. PloAvden, in his useful His-
torical Revietv, never has a good word for the
unfortunate Defenders, or any other Irishman Avho
did not choose to submit quietly and patiently to the
\*ery uttermost extremities of tyranny.

214

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

indeed, at the commencement of that
session as if the principle of Parliamen-
tary Peforin Avere to he admitted and
fully carried out. The several great ob-
jects Avhich had been urged b}^ the op-
position. eA'er since the last Parliament,
Avith great perseverance and ability, AA^ere
the Pesponsibility bill, the Place and the
Pension bill. There Avere also other meas-
ures of great consequence, but of less
general inq)ortance ; such as the disquali-
fying of revenue officers from sitting in
Parliament, and the repeal of the Police
act. By the Pesponsibility bill, no money
could be disposed of by the sole order
from the king, as Awas before the case ;
for Irish officers Avere to sign all Avarrants ;
and every Avarrant and officer came before
Parliament. The necessary consequence
of such a bill AA-as, that the hereditary
revenue Avas giA-en up, and, like the ad-
ditional supply, A'oted annually. The
great effect and consequence of such a
measure any man AAdio understood Go-
A’ernment must see at a glance.

By the Pension bill all pensioners for
years or during pleasure Avere excluded ;
and the sum, AAdiich then Avas near one
hundred and tAA-enty thousand pounds a
year, AA-as reduced to eighty thousand.

By the Place bill, all neAr places from
the date of the bill AA-ere disqualified.
Officers of revenue, AA-hose duty required
their absence from Dublin, AA'ere excluded;
and the principle of excluding them all
AA-as carried.

Besides the acts already mentioned, the
folloAA-ing popular acts AA-ere passed in the
session of 1793, A-iz : (33 Geo. III., c. xxa-.)
“ An Act to encourage the ImproA-ement
of Barren Land;” (xxxi.) “ An Act for
regulating the Trade of Ireland to and
from the East Indies, under certain con-
ditions and x)rovisions for a time therein
mentioned ;” (33 Geo. III., c. xxxiv.) “ An
Act for the support of the Honour and
Dignity of His Majesty’s CroAAn in Ire-
land, and for granting to His Majesty a
Civil List Establishment, under certain
ProA'isions and Pegulations ; ” (33 Geo.
III., c. xli.) “An Act for securing the
Freedom and Independence of the House
of Commons, by excluding therefrom Per-
sons holding any Offices under the CroAvn,
to be hereafter created, or holding certain
Offices therein enumerated, or Pensions
for Term of Years, or during His Majesty’s
I’leasure ; ” (33 Geo. HI., c. xlviii.) “ An
Act to Pemove Doubts respecting the
Functions of Juries in Cases of Libel;”
(33 Geo. III., c. lii.) “ An Act for the
Advancement of Trade and Manufactures,
by granting the Sums therein mentioned
for the support of Commercial Credit.”

But no general measure of reform could
be carried. The conciliatory disposition
of the Government abated sensibly in
proportion as the French successes on the
Continent seemed more doubtful. In fact,
Dumouriez lost the Loav Counties as
quickly as he had Avon them : rather indeed
he had given up his conquests to the Al-
lies ; having, as is Avell knoAvn, become a
traitor to his country. The miserable
Avretcli subsisted for many years on a
pension from the English Government,
and died in Buckinghamshire, in 1823.
It Avas believed for a time in England
that the French Pevolution AA-as going
back, and that the danger Avas in a great
measure past. They resolved therefore to
rely on the trifling concessions they had
already made to conciliate the opposition
party and the upper classes of the Catho-
lics, and to make relentless use of their
neAv coercion acts in “ stamping out ”
United Irishmen.

The session Avas closed on the IGth of
August, 1793.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1793-1795.

Small results of Catholic Relief Bill. — Distinctions
still kept up. — Excitement against the Catholics.
— Trials of Defenders. — Packing Juries. — Pro-
gress of United Irishism. — Opposed by Catholic
bishops. — Arrests of Bond and Butler. — Prosecu-
tion of A. Hamilton RoAvan. — Last effort for Par-
liamentary Refonn. — Defeated. — United Irish
Meeting in Dublin dispersed by the Police. — Rev.
Win. Jackson and Wolfe Tone. — Rowan charged
Avith Treason. — RoAA-an escapes. — Tone alloAA-ed to
quit the country. — Voav of the Cave Hill. — Fitz-
A\-illiain’s Administration. — FitZAA-illiam deceiA-ed
by Pitt. — Dismissal of Mr. Beresford. — Plan of
IMr. Pitt. — Insurrection first. — “Union” after-
Avards. — FitzAA-illiam recalled. — Great Despon-
dency.— The “Orangemen.” — Beginning of Coei'-
cion and Anarchy.

The limited and grudging measure for
relief of the Catholics had by no means
had the effect of destroying the odious
distinctions Avhich had so long divided
Irishmen of different religious persuasions.
The laAv indeed Avas changed, but the in-
solent and exclusive spirit Avhich had
inspired the Penal Code, the very marked
ami offensive disabilities Avhich still left
the Catholic people in a condition of
legal inferiority, gave the “Ascendency”
ample opportunity to make them feel
daily and hourly that they Avere still a
proscribed and oppressed race. Great
difficulties at first prevailed in raising
the different regiments of militia ; for

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

215

although Catholics were rendered capable
of serving in them, no Catholic officers
were appointed ; this marked reprobation
of all gentlemen of that communion so
directly in the teeth of the act diffused a
general diffidence amidst the lower orders,
and it was found necessary to appoint
several Catholic officers before the militia
corps could be completed.

Catholics were not yet eligible as
mayors or sheriffs, but there was now no
legal exclusion of them from the guilds
of merchants. Accordingly, thirty highly
respectable Catholic merchants of Dublin
applied for admission into their guild,
but were rejected on the mere ground of
their religion. In every part of the
kingdom continual efforts Avere made to
traduce and vilify the whole Catholic
body, in order to defeat and annul the
measures which the legislature had j)assed
in their favour. Never, perhaps, in all
the history of the country, had the viru-
lent malignity of the bigots been so busy
in charging upon Catholics all manner of
evil principles and practices. Their in-
dignant denials of these imputations were
utterly unheeded. Every town corpora-
tion followed the example of that of Dub-
lin, and excluded Catholics even from the
poor privilege of belonging to the guild
of their trades. The growth and progress
of Defenderism, particularly in the county
of Meath, afforded fuel to the enemies of
the Catholic body, which they studied to
implicate in the outrages Avhich were
sometimes committed. Painful industry
was employed to work up the imagina-
tions of the inhabitants into the expecta-
tion of a general massacre of all the Pro-
testants throughout that county. No arts
were left untried to criminate the Catho-
lic body ; every exceptional Avord or action
of an individual, hoAvever contemptible,
Avas charged on the Avhole ; and the object
was noAv, not so much to suppress the
Defenders, as to fasten their enormities
on the Catholic body.

On several trials AAdiich took place at
the assizes for Meath County in prose-
cuting men charged with being Defenders,
the juries Avere composed exclusively of
Protestants. Catholics, it is true, Avere
legally competent to sit on juries, but in
every case of prosecution by the croAvn,
the Protestant sheriff took care to sIioav
them that they Avere not regarded as
“ good and laAvful men.” Irritated and
humiliated by such continued oj^pression,
it is not wonderful if many of the Catho-
lics began to despair of being ever alloAved
to live in peace and honour in their native
land Avithout such a revolution as Avould
destroy both the “ Ascendency ” and the

English connection along Avith it. Great
numbers of them about this time joined
the United Irish Society, Avhich Avas not
yet indeed a revolutionary or republican
body in form, although its indncipal
leaders were reAmlutionists in principle,
and already foresaAv the necessity Avhich
shortly after drove them into armed in-
surrection. The Catholic bishops, it must
be admitted (if it be any credit to them),
most vehemently opposed the United
Irishmen, and omitted no occasion of pro-
testing their “ loyalty,” and pouring exe-
cration upon “French principles.” In
the humble address to the King from
nine Catholic bishops, Ave find these
strong expressions, A\diich prove a spirit
of the most determined submissiveness
under oppression : —

“ Whilst Ave lament the necessity that
inflicts the calamities of Avar upon any,
eA^en the most depraved, of our fellow-
creatures, Ave incessantly supplicate the
Almighty Disposer of events that, bless-
ing your Majesty’s arms Avith success, He
may crown you Avith the glory of stoi)ping
the progress of that atheistical faction
which aims at the subversion of every
religious and moral principle.

“We look toAvards that unhappy na-
tion Avhich is the object of hostility, and
acknoAvledge Avith humble thanksgiving
the goodness of Divine Providence, Avliich,
under the best of constitutions, has be-
stoAved on the land Ave live in freedom
exempt from anarchy, protection guarded
against oppression, and a prince calculated
by his w'isdom and virtue to preserve that
happy condition of society.”

It is a part of the history of our coun-
try that these four archbishops and five
bishops did actually bear this high testi-
mony to the freedom and happiness of
Ireland, at a time Avhen every accused
Catholic AAus tried before a packed jury
of his ememies — Avhen no Catholic could be
a magistrate or sheriff, and therefore nc
Catholic had the least chance of justice
in any court — Avhen the unfortunate flocks
of these prelates AA^ere having their stacks
of grain sold to pay tithes to clergymen
they never saAv, and church rates to
support churches Avhich they never
entered.

The government now began a system
of active operations against the United
Irishmen. Taa^ of their chiefs, Simon But-
ler and 01 Her Bond, the first a barrister,
the second a Dublin merchant, had already,
in 1792, been summoned to the bar of the
House of Lords, charged Avith having
acted as chairman and secretary of one
of the meetings in Taylor’s Hall, at A\diich
an address to the people Avas adopted.

21G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

very strongly denouncing the corrupt
composition of Parliament. This was
construed as an offence against the pri-
vilege of Parliament ; and Butler and
Bond -were condemned to he imprisoned
for six months, and to pay each a fine
of £500. The next leader marked for
vengeance was the famous Archibald
Hamilton Bowan, the friend of Tone, and
one of the boldest of the early chiefs of
the Society. It was determined to prose-
cute him on a charge of sedition, on
account of an address “to the Volun-
teers,” adopted at a meeting where he
acted as secretary. The address had
been adopted and published two years
before ; yet the government had hesitated
all this while to bring him to trial. In
fact, arrangements had first to be per-
fected to ensure the packing of the jury.
This was done by making John Giffard,
one of the most unscrupulous and inde-
fatigable partisans of the “ Ascendency,”
one of the sheriffs of Dublin ; he knew
precisely on what jurors the Castle could
depend. It was on occasion of this trial
that the system of jury-packing was
thoroughly organised and reduced to an
art ; it has since that time formed the
chief instrument of British government
in Ireland.

The prosecuted address was written by
Drennan, and its first paragraph will
show the nature of the “ sedition : ” —

“ Citizen-soldiers, you first took up
arms to protect your country from foreign
enemies and from domestic disturbance ;
for the same purposes it now becomes
necessary that you should resume them.
A proclamation has been issued in Eng-
land for embodying the militia, and
a proclamation has been issued by the
Lord-Lieutenant and Council in Ireland
for repressing all seditious associations ;
in consequence of both these j)roclama-
tions, it is reasonable to apprehend dan-
ger from abroad and danger at home.
From Avhence but from apprehended dan-
ger are these menacing preparations for
war drawn through the streets of this
capital, or whence, if not to create that
internal commotion which was not found,
to shake that credit which Avas not af-
fected, to blast that volunteer honour
Avhich was hitherto inviolate, are those
terrible suggestions, and rumours, and
Avhispers "that meet us at every
corner, and agitate at least our old
men, our women, and children ? What-
ever be the motive, or from whatever
quarter it arises, alarm has arisen, and
you. Volunteers of Ireland, are there-
fore summoned to arms at the instance of
Government as Arell as by the responsi-

bility attached to your character, and the
permanent obligations of your constitu-
tion. We will not at this day condescend
to quote authorities for the right of having
and of using arms, but we will cry alou(l^
even amidst the storm raised by the Avitch-
craft of a proclamation, that to your for-
mation was owing the peace and protec-
tion of this island, to your relaxation has
been owing its relapse into impotence and
insignificance, to your renovation must be
owing its future freedom and its present
tranquility ; you are therefore summoned
to arms, in order to preserve your country
in that guarded quiet, Avhich may secure
it from external hostility, and to maintain
that internal regimen throughout the land,
Avhich, superseding a notorious police, or
a supected militia, may ijreserA'e the
blessings of peace by a vigilant prepara-
tion for war.”

The address Avent on to recommend a
civil and military convention, Avhich Avas
not against the laAV at that time, thougli
in the next j-ear the “ Convention Act ”
Avas passed to prevent all such assemblies.

Upon this the Attorney-General filed an
ex-officio information. The trial came on
the 29th January, 1794, though the infor-
mation had been filed as far back as the
8th of the preceding June. Upon calling
over the jury one of them Avas objected
against, as holding a place under the
croAvn, but the Attorney- General insisted
upon the illegality of the objection, and
observed, that it Avent against all that Avas
honourable and respectable in the land.
It Avas, therefore, overruled by the court.
After a trial of about ten hours, the jury
found KoAvan guilty. This Avas very un-
expected by Mr. RoAvan’s party. A mo-
tion Avas afterAvards made in court to set
aside the verdict, and grant a ncAv trial
grounded on several affidavits. The mo-
tic n Avas argued for six days, and Avas at
last discharged. The grounds upon Avhich
the defendant’s counsel rested their case
Avere, 1. Upon the declaration of a juror
against Mr. RoAA^an, viz., that the country
Avould never be quiet till he was hanged
or banished. 2. Upon the partiality of
Mr. Giffard, the sheriff, Avho had so
arrayed the panel as to have him tried
by an unfair jury. 3. Upon the in-
credibility of one Lister, the chief and
only Avitness against him ; and 4. The mis-
direction of the court. The sentence of
the court upon Mr. Rowan Avas to pa}' to
His Majesty a fine of £500 and be impri-
soned tAvo years, to be computed from tlie
29th of January, 1794, and until the fine
Avere paid, and to find security for his
good behaviour for seven years, himself
in £2000, and tAvo sureties in £1000

mSTOKY OF IRELAND.

217

each. The verdict and judgment of the
court gave great dissatisfaction to tlie
popular party. Their disapprobation of
the verdict was expressed in court by
groans and hisses.

Parliament met on the 21st of January ;
and in March Mr. Wm. Brabazon Pon-
sonby presented his bill for amending the
state of the representation of the people
in Parliament. Mr. Gratton and Sir
Lawrence Parsons supported the bill; the
Government party does not seem to have
even taken the trouble to debate the ques-
tion, being quite sure of the result. On
motion of Sir Hercules Langrishe it was
ordered to be read a second time that day
six months ; and so ended all efforts for
reform in the Irish Parliament. The
Houses were prorogued on the 25th of
March.

In the meantime Hamilton Kowan was
lying in Newgate, according to his sen-
tence. The United Irish Society of Dub-
lin voted him an address in his prison,
vehementl}^ denouncing the packing of
juries, and promising “inflexible deter-
mination to pursue the great object of
our asociations — an equal and impartial
representation of the people in Parliament”
But the Government was now determined
to treat these extra-parliamentary re-
formers without ceremony. On the 4th
of May, their ordinary place of meeting,
the Taylor’s Hall in Back Lane, was
invaded by the police, the meeting dis-
persed and the papers seized. After this
event many of the more timid, or prudent
members, fell off altogether from the
society ; but the more resolute and in-
dignant, especially the republican portion
of the body, made up their minds from
this moment to re-organise the society
upon a distinctly revolutionary and mili-
tary basis, which they effected in the
course of the next year. Their reasons
for taking this extreme resolution were —
that as the people were not fairly repre-
sented in Parliament, and had no hope of
being so represented — as the Convention
Act had deprived them of the right to
consult on their common affairs publicly,
by means of delegates appointed for that
purpose — and as even trial by jury was
now virtually abolished, so that no man’s
life or liberty had any longer the slightest
protection from the laws, they av ere thrown
back upon their original rights and reme-
dies as human beings — that is to say, the
right and remedy of revolution.

A few days before the attack of the
police upon Taylor’s Hall, a certain PeA'.
William Jackson, a clergyman of the
Church of England, was arrested in Dub-
lin on a charge of high treason. He had

come from Prance, with instructions fronr
the Government of the Republic to have an
emissary appointed by the United Irish
leaders who should go to Paris and nego-
tiate for Prench aid in a revolutionary
movement. He had come by Avay of Lon-
don ; and there Mr. Pitt, avIio Avas i)er-
fectly aware of this errand and his every
movement, contrived that he should be
provided Avith a companion upon his mis-
sion. This was one Cockayne, an attor-
ney, who came to Dublin Avith Mr. Jack-
son, and affected great zeal in the cause
of liberty and of Ireland. Jackson had
letters of introduction to Lord EdAvard
Pitzgerald, aaLo refused, hoAvever, to hold
any communication Avith him. He Avas
introduced, hoAvever, to Wolfe Tone, and
had several intervioAvs Avith RoAvan in
prison. Tone at first entered into his
vieAvs, and undertook to be himself the
agent Avho sliould go to Prance ; but at
the next intervieAA", having conceived
suspicions of Cockayne, if not of Jack-
son himself, he dreAv back, and declined
further negotiation. RoAvan, hoAvever,
Avas less cautious, and had many inter-
views Avith Jackson and Cockayne, in
Avhich he endeaAmured first to secure
Tone’s serAuces as the Prench agent, and
on his refusal. Dr. Reynolds’. All this
Avhile Mr. Pitt and the Government Avere
kept fully apprised of all that AAms going
foi’Avard ; and at length, Avhen it Avas sup-
posed there Avas evidence enough to in-
volve Jackson, Tone, RoAvan and Rey-
nolds in a charge of high treason, Jackson
Avas arrested, brought to trial the next
year, convicted on the testimony of Cock-
ayne, and about to be sentenced to death,
when he dropped dead in court, having
SAA'alloAved arsenic for that purpose.

On the 1st of May, Archibald Hamilton
RoAvan, noAv certain of being tried, con-
victed and executed for high treason,
escaped from Newgate prison, arrived in
Prance, and thence proceeded to America.
Reynolds avoided arrest by timely flight.
Tone Avas not apprehended ; but he Avas
gUen to understand that the accusation
AA^as hanging over him ; and Avas left the
option of quitting the country, but AAuth-
out any promise being exacted on his part
as to his course for the future. Before
going aAvay, he Avrote a narrative of the
tAvo conversations he had Avith Jackson.
Tone’s son, in his memoir of his father,
says : “ When my father delivered this
paper, the prevalent opinion, which he
then shared, Avas, that Jackson Avas a
secret emissary employed by the British
Government. It required the unfortunate
man’s voluntary death to clear his char-
acter of such a foul imputation. What

218

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

renders this transaction the more odious
is, that, before his arrival in Ireland, the
life of Jackson was completely in the
power of the British Government. His
evil genius was already pinned upon
him ; his mission from France, his everj^
thought, and his views, were known. He
Avas allowed to proceed, not in order to
detect an existing conspiracy in Ireland,
but to form one, and thus increase the
number of victims. A more atrocious
instance of iDcrfidious and gratuitous
cruelty is scarcely to be found in the
history of any country but Ireland.”

In jNfay, 1795, Tone proceeded to Bel-
fast Avith his family, met there Avith some
of his early associates in the formation of
the first United Irish Club, and made
some agreeable excursions Avith them.
One of the scenes AAjiich he describes in
his memoirs is impressive, seen in the light
of subsequent events : “ I remember, par-
ticularly, tAvo days that Ave passed on the
Cave hill. On the first, Kussell, Xeilson,
Simms, MUracken, and one or tAvo more
of us, on the summit of IM ‘Art’s fort, took
a solemn obligation, Avhich, I think I may
say, I have on my part endeavoured to
fulfil — never to desist in our efforts, until
we had subverted the authority of Eng-
land over our country, and asserted her
independence.”

Tone had already solemnly promised
his friends in Dublin, that if he noAv re-
tired to the United States, it Avould only
be to proceed thence to France, and labour
to form the alliance Avhich he regarded
as the grand mission of his life between
the French iiepublic and a republic in
Ireland.

In the beginning of the year 1795,
OAving to certain arrangments betAA’een
the English ministers and those lately
“ coalized” Whigs Avho had been admitted
to a share in the administration. Lord
Westmoreland Avas recalled from Ireland,
and Lord FitzAvilliam Avas sent over as
Lord-Lieutenant. This gaA'e great hope
and satisfaction to the Irish Catholics and
their friends in Parliament. Lord Fitz-
Avilliam Avas a Whig of the Burke school,
a close friend of the Duke of Portland ;
and it Avas uniA'ersally understood that
he had not undertaken the GoA'ernment of
Ireland saA'e on the express terms that
complete Catholic emancipation Avould be
made a Government measure. Indeed,
this Avas Avell knoAvn ; for before consent-
ing to come to Ireland he had induced
]\Ir. Grattan to go over and confer Avith
him on the policy to be pursued. Mr.
Grattan, of course, made the emancipa-
tion of the Catholics the main and indis-
l)cnsable point ; and the Duke of Port-

land and LordFitzAvilliam fully concurred,
Avith the distinct assent also of ]\Ir. Pitt.
For the due understanding of the cruel
fraud Avhich that minister Avas noAv medi-
tating upon the Irish nation, it is needful
that this previous arrangement of policy
should be made clear ; and, fortunately,
Ave have the evidence, both of Mr. Grattan
and Lord FitzAvilliam himself, in full con-
tradiction to the reckless assertions of
Fitzgibbon. Mr. Grattan, in his Answer to
Lord Clare, says: “In summer, on a change
being made in the British Cabinet, being
informed by some of the learned persons
therein, that the administration of the
Irish Department aa’us to belong to them,
and that they sent for us to adopt our
measures, I stated the Catholic emancipa-
tion to be one of them.” And Lord Fitz-
Avilliam, in his letters to I.ord Carlisle,
makes this explicit statement : “ From
the very beginning, as Avell as through
the Avhole progress of that fatal busi-
ness, for fatal I fear I must call it, I
acted in perfect conformity Avith the origi-
nal outline settled betAveen me and His
Majesty’s ministry, previous to my depar-
ture from London. From a full considera-
tion of the real merits of the case, as Avell as
from OA'ery information I had been able to
collect of the state and temper of Ireland,
from the year 1790, I Avas decidedly of
opinion, that not only sound policy, but
justice, required, on the part of Great
Britain, that the Avork, Avhich Avas left
imperfect at that period, ought to be
completed, and the Catholics relieved
from every remaining disqualification. In
this opinion the Duke of Portland uni-
formly concurred Avith me, and Avhen this
question came under discussion, prcA'ious
to my departure for Ireland, I found the
Cabinet, Avith IMr. Pitt at their head,
strongly impressed Avith the same convic-
tion. Had I found it otherwise, I never
Avould have undertaken the GoA'ernment.
I at first proposed that the additional
indulgences should be offered from the
throne ; the A-ery best effects Avould be
secured by this act of unsolicited gracious-
ness ; and the embarassing consequences
Avhich it Avas natural to foresee must
result from the measures being left open
for any volunteer to bring forAAvard, Avould
be timely and happily aAmided. But to
this jiroposal objections AA'ere started that
appeared of sufficient Aveight to induce the
adoption of another plan. I consented
not to bring the question forAvard on the
part of GoA'ernment, but rather to en-
deavour to keep it back until a period f'f
more general tranquility, Avhen so manv
material objects might not press ui)on the
1 Government, but as the principle Avas

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

210

agreed on, and the necessity of its being
brought into full effect was universally
allowed, it was at the same time resolved,
that if the Catholics should appear deter-
mined to stir the business, and bring it
before Parliament, I was to give it a
handsome support on the part of the
Government.

“ I was no sooner landed, and informed
of the real state of things here, than I
found that question would force itself
upon my immediate consideration. Faith-
ful to the system that had been agreed on,
and anxious to attain the object that had
been committed to my discretion, I lost
not a moment in gaining every necessary
information, or in transmitting the result
of the British Cabinet. As early as the
8th of January, I wrote to the Secretary
of State on the subject ; I told him that
I trembled about the Homan Catholics ;
that I had great fears about keeping them
quiet for the session j that I found the
question already in agitation ; that a
committee was appointed to bring forward
a petition to Parliament, praying for a
repeal of all remaining disqualifications.
I mentioned my intentions of immediately
using what efforts I could to stop the
progress of it, and to bring the Catholics
back to a confidence in Government. I
stated the substance of some conversations
I had on the subject with some of the
principal persons of the country. It was
the opinion of one of these that if the
postponing of the question could be ne-
gotiated on grounds of expediency, it
ought not to be resisted by Government.
That it should be put off for some time
was allowed by another to be a desirable
thing, but the principle of extension was
at the same time strongly insisted on, and
forcibly inculcated, as a matter of the
most urgent necessity.”

Lord Fitzwilliam took possession of his
government on the 4th of January, 1795.
Parliament stood prorogued until the 22d
of January, He occupied the intervening
time in making some dismissals from
office, which created great dismay and
resentment in the Castle circles, and
proportional joy in the minds of the
people. Mr. Grattan was invited to accept
the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer,
but declined. Mr- Ponsonby and Mr.
Curran were to be made Attorney and
Solicitor-General ; and these appointments
in themselves Avere significant of a marked
change in the Irish policy. But nothing
struck the country Avith such surprise and
pleasure, mingled AA'ith apprehension, as
the dismissal of IMr. Beresford from the
EeA'enue Board. The Beresford family
was at that time the most powerful of

the aristocracy of Ireland ; had the tAvo
peerages of Waterford and Tyrone, and
had also been so successful in its constant
efforts to create for itself a controlling
infiuence by means of patronage and
boroughmongering, that it Avas thought
no viceroy could dare to displace a Beres-
ford. In the letter cited before, addressed
to Lord Carlisle, Fitzwilliam says : “ And
noAv for the grand question about Mr.
Beresford. In a letter of mine to Mr.
Pitt on this subject, I reminded him of a
conversation, in AAdiich I had expressed to
him (in ansAver to the question put to him
by me) my apprehensions that it Avould
be necessary to remove that gentleman,
and that he did not offer the slightest ob-
jection, or say a single Avord in favour of
Mr. Beresford. This alone Avould have
made me suppose that I should be exempt
from every imputation of breach of agree-
ment if I determined to remove him ; but
AAdien, on my arrival here, I found all
those apprehensions of his dangerous
poAver, Avhich Mr. Pitt admits I had often
represented to iiim, Avere fully justified ;
Avhen he Avas filling a situation greater
lha 1 that of the Lord-Lieutenant ; and I
clearly saAA", that if I had connected myself
Avith him, it Avould have been connecting
myself Avith a person under uniA^ersal
lieaAy suspicions, and subjecting my
government to all the opprobrium and
unpopularity attendent upon his mal-
administration.”

This bold step, as it Avas then felt to be,
still further confirmed the joyful expec-
tation that an ample Catholic Relief bill
Avould soon be brought in and sustained
by the GoA^ernment. All the Catholics
and liberal Protestants AV'ere highly
pleased at the prospect. The Northern
tStar, organ of the United Irishmen,
published in Belfast, had triumphantly
announced Catholic emancipation as a
matter settled. The catholics generally
agreed to put their case into the hands of
Mr. Grattan, their old and Avarm advo-
cate ; and it seems highly probable that
if the compact made AvitliLord Fitzwilliam
had been observed, and all the remaining
disabilities of Catholics frankly removed
at once, the insurrection Avould ncA^er
have taken place, and infinite misery and
attrocity saved to the country. But Mr.
Pitt kncAv Avell that if there Avere no
insurrection there would also be no union.
He had his plans already almost matured;
and his chief adviser for Irish affairs Avas
the thorough Lord Clare.

]\Ir. Beresford, the dismissed Commis-
sioner of the Revenue, at once went to
England, laid his complaints before Mr.
Pitt,*and even had an audience of the king.

220

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Lord Fitzwilliam very soon found, from the
tenor of the letters he received from Pitt,
that the minister was dissatisfied with
some of liis measures ; and disquieting
rumours prevailed that he Avould not long
remain in Ireland.

In the meantime. Catholic petitions
poured into the House. Mr. Grattan
moved for leave to bring in his Catholic
Relief Bill ; and leave was given with only
three dissentient voices. This Avas of
itself a very remarkable feature in Irish
politics ; and Avhat Avas even more notable
Avas the fact that no counter-petitions of
Protestants AA^ere sent in. The nation aa^s
in good humour; and the House voted
larger supplies in men and money for
carrying on the Avar than had ever been
voted in Ireland before. Noav the un-
pleasant rumours became more positHe,
and assumed more consistence. On the
28th of February, Sir LaAvrence Parsons,
in his place in Parliament, asked the
members opposite if the rumours Avere
true ; but received no ansAver. Sir LaAv-
rence added, ‘‘ he Avas sorry to be obliged
to construe the silence of the right honour-
able and honourable gentlemen into a con-
firmation of this rumour ; and he deplored
most deeply the event, Avhich, at the
present time, must tend to throAv alarming
doubts on the promises Avhich had been
held out to the people, of measures to be
adopted for the promotion of their happi-
ness, the conciliation of their minds, and
the common attachment of every class of
his majesty’s faithful subjects of Ireland,
in support of the same happy constitution.
If those measures Avere noAV to be relin-
quished AAdiich gentlemen had promised
AA'ith so much confidence to the country,
and on the faith of Avhich the House had
been called on to A'ote the enormous sum
of one million scA’en hundred thousand
pounds, he must consider his country as
brought to the most aAA'ful and alarming
crisis she had ever knoAvn in anj' period of
her history.”

He then moA^ed an address to His
Excellency, entreating him to remain
in his government ; 3Ir. Duquery se-
conded the motion, and used very strong
language Avith respect to the conduct
of Mr. Pitt, “ Avho, not satisfied,” he
said, “ Avith having involved the coun-
try in a disastrous Avar, intended to
complete the mischief by risking the
internal peace of Ireland, making that
country the dupe of his fraud and artifice,
in order to swindle the Nation out of
£1,700,000 to support the Avar on the faith
of measures Avhich it noAV seemed Avere to
be refused.”

And noAv all proceedings on the Catholic

Relief bill Avere suspended, by positive
orders from England ; and as Mr. Grattan
had acted in bringing it forAA’ard as a
ministerial supporter he could only ac-
quiesce, though Avith the gloomiest fore-
bodings.

Again on the 2d of iMarch, Sir LaAvrence
Parsons made a very violent speech, se-
verely reprobating the bad faith of the
British Cabinet AA'ith regard to Lord Fitz-
Avilliam. “But the great object,” he said,
“ of the motion he Avas about to make Avas
to calm the public mind, to give the
people an assurance that the measures
Avhich Avere proposed Avould not be aban-
doned ; that the Parliament Avouid keep
the means in their hands until they Avere
accomplished ; and that they Avould not
be prorogued until they Avere fairly and
fully discussed. He did not pretend to say
specifically Avhat these measures Avere.
The first he belieA'ed to be the Catholic
bill ; and if a resistance to any one mea-
sure more than another Avas likely to pro-
mote dreadful consequences it Avas this.
He said nothing as to the original pro-
priety of the measure ; but this mucli he
AAmuld say, that if the Irish administra-
tion had countenanced the Catholics in
this expectation, Avithout the concurrence
of the British Cabinet, they had much to
ansAver for. On the other hand, if the
British Cabinet had held out an assent,
and had afterAvards retracted ; if the
dsemon of darkness should come from the
infernal regions upon earth, and throAv a
fire-brand amongst the people, he could
not do more to promote mischief. The
hopes of the public Avere raised, and in one
instant they Avere blasted. If the House
did not resent that insult to the nation,
and to themselves, they Avould in his mind
be most contemptible ; for although a
majority of the people might submit to
be mocked in so barefaced a manner, the
case Avas not as formerly, Avhen all the
Parliament of Ireland Avas against the
Catholics ; and to back them, the force
of England.” Noav, although the claim
of the Catholics Avas Avell knoAvn and un-
derstood, not one petition controverting it
had been presented from Protestants in
any part of Ireland. No remonstrance
appeared, no county meeting had been
held. What Avas to be inferred from all
this, but that the sentiments of the Pro-
testants Avere for the emancipation of the
Catholics ? A meeting Avas held on Sa-
turday last at the Royal Exchange of the
merchants and traders of the metropolis,
Avhich was as numerously attended as the
limits of that building Avmuld admit. The
Governor of the Bank of Ireland Avas in
the chair. An address Avas resolved on to

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND.

221

His Excellency Lord Fitzwilliam, full of
affection, and resolutions strong as they
could be in countenance of the Catholic
claim. He would ask them, was the Brit-
ish minister to control all the interests,
talents, and inclinations in that country ?
He protested to God, that in all the his-
tory he had read he had never met with
a parallel of such ominous infatuation as
that by which he appeared to be led.
“ Let them persevere,” said he, “ and you
must increase your army to myriads ;
every man must have five or six dragoons
in his house.” Sir LaAvrence ended Avith
41 motion to limit the Money bill ; but this
motion AA^as voted down by a large major-
ity. Members could hardly yet believe
that so great a villany was intended. Mr.
Conolly, however, remarked, “that he
Avould vote for it if he did not hear some-
thing satisfactory” — namely about the
retention of Lord Fitzwilliam. Within
a feAv days after Lord Fitzwilliam Avas
recalled from Ireland. No more was heard
about Catholic Relief for nearly forty
years. Lord Camden succeeded as
viceroy, and the country was delivered
over to its noAv inevitable ordeal of
slaughter and desolation ; an ordeal
Avhich, in Mr. Pitt’s opinion, was needful
to paA'e the Avay for the Legislative Union.
Mr. Plowden has A^ery truly described
the effect of these transactions upon the
nation : —

“The report of Earl Fitzwilliam’s intend-
ed removal Avas no sooner credited, than an
univ«eral despondency, in some instances
bordering on desperation, seized the Avhole
nation. Meetings Avere formed throughout
the kingdom, in order to convey to their
beloved and respected Governor, their
high sense of his virtue and patriotism,
and their just indignation at his and their
country’s enemies. The deep and settled
spirit of discontent which at this time
pervaded all ranks of people Avas not con-
fined to the Catholics. The Dissenters
and as many of the Protestants of the
establishment as had not an interest in
that monopoly of poAver and infiuence
Avhich Earl FitzAvilliam had so openly
attacked and so fearfully alarmed, felt the
irresistible effect : all good Irishmen be-
held Avith sorroAv and indignation, the
reconciliation of all parties, interests, and
religions defeated, the cup of national
union dashed from their eager lips, and
the spirit of discord let loose upon the
kingdom Avith an enlarged commission to
inflame, aggravate, and destroy. Such
Avere the feelings, and such the language
of those Avho deplored the remoAval of that
nobleman, in the critical moment of giv-
ing peace, strength, and prosperity to

their country. And Iioav large a part of
the Irish nation lamented the loss of their
truly patriotic Governor may be read in
the numberless addresses and resolutions
that poured in upon him both before and
after his actual departure, expressive of
their grief, despair, and indignation at
that ominous event. They came from
every description of persons, but from
Right Boys, Defenders, and the old de-
pendants upon tl’.c castle.” The people of
Ireland, of all sects and classes, seemed
seized Avith a sudden undefined horror at
the prospects before them. They saAV
that a great opportunity Avas lost. And
they had no mortal quarrel Avith one
another, save the quarrel ahvays made for
them, ahvays forced upon them, by an
English minister sitting safe in his Cabi-
net at Westminster. Many on both sides
Avho Avere destined soon to meet in deadly
struggle could have prayed that this cup
might pass. On the 25th of March, 1795,
Lord Fitzwilliam took his departure
from Ireland, when the resentment, grief,
and indignation of the public were most
strongly marked. It Avas a day of
general gloom • the shops Avere shut ;
no business of any kind Avas transacted,
and the Avhole city put on mourning.
His coach Avas draAvn to the Avater side by
some of the most respectable citizens,
and cordial sorroAv appeared on every
countenance. The reception of Earl
Camden, Avho arrived in Dublin five
days after, Avore a A'ery different com-
plexion ; displeasure appeared generally :
many strong traits of disapprobation Avere
exhibited, and some of the populace Avere
so outrageous that it became necessary
to call out a military force in order to
quell the disturbances that ensued.

Still the rage for meetings and ad-
dresses continued. On the 9th of April
a most numerous and respectable meeting
of the Catholics Avas held in their chapel
in Francis Street, to receive the report of
their delegates, Avho had presented the
petition at St. James’ : AAdien Mr. Keogh
reported, that in execution of their
mission, they had on the Idth March
presented their petition to His Majesty,
and had received Avhat Avas generaiiy
termed a gracious reception. That they
had afterAvards felt it their duty to request
an audience Avith the Duke of Portland,
the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, to receive such information as
he should think fit to impart relatiA'e to
His Majesty’s determination on the sub-
ject of their address. That his grace de-
clined giving any information Avhatever,
save that Ilis Majesty had imparted his
pleasure thereon to the Lord-Lieutenant,

•222

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

arul that he was the proper channel through
which that information should pass. Here
their mission was determined. Mr. Keogh
continued to deliver his sentiments up-
on the critical situation of affairs, and
amongst many strong things which fell
from him, one observation gave particular
offence to Government. He was not, he
said, sorry that the measure had been at-
tempted, though it had been defeated ; for
it pointed out one fact at least, in which
the feelings of every Irishman were in-
terested, and by which the Irish Legis-
ture Avould be roused to a sense of its
own dignity. It shoAved that the internal
regulations of Ireland, to Avhich alone an
Irish Parliament Avas competent. Avere
to be previously adjusted by a British
Cabinet. Whilst this debate Avas going
on, a A'ery large party of the young men
of the college came into the chapel, and
Avere most honourably received. Some
of them joined in the debate. They
came that hour from presenting an ad-
dress to Mr, Grattan, to thank and con-
gratulate him upon his patriotic efforts
in the cause of Catholic Emancipation,
end the reform of those abuses Avhich had
inflamed public indignation, to AAdiich Mr.
Grattan made an appropriate ansAA'er.
Every patriotic Irishman must look back
A\dth unaA'ailing regret to the lost oppor-
tunity, or ra,ther to the cruel deception, of
Lord Fitzwilliam’s short administration.
There Avas really at that moment a dis-
position to bury the hatchet of strife. At
no subsequent period, doAvn to this day,
were the tAvo nations AAdiich make up the
Irish population, so Avell disposed to amal-
gamate and unite. But that did not suit
the exigencies of British policy There
Avas to be an insurrection, in order that
'1 here might be a Legislative Union. In
this same eventful year of 1795, British
policy Avas materially aided by a neAV and
portentous institution — the Orange Society.
The recall of Lord EitzAvilliam, and the
absolute and most ineAutable despair of
obtaining either Reform of Parliament or
Catholic Emancipation under the existing
order of things, had driven vast numbers
of the people, of both religions, into the
United Irish Society. A spirit of union
and fraternity Avas spreading fast. “Then,”
says Mr. PloAvden, “the gentlemen in
])Iace became frightfully alarmed for their
situations ; actii'c agents Avere sent down

to Armagh, to turn the ferocity and fana-
ticism of Peep of Day Boys into a religi-
ous contest Avith the Catholics, under the
specious appearance of zeal for Church
and King. Personal animosity Avas art-
fully coiiA’erted into religious rancour ;
and for the specious purpose of taking off
the stigma of delinquency, the appel-
lation of Peep of Day Boys Avas changed
into that of Orangemen.” It Avas in the
northern part of Armagh County that
this bloody association originated, and
Mr. Thomas Verner enjoyed the bad emi-
nence of being its first “ Grand Master.”
Their test is said to liaA’e been : “ In the
aAvful presence of Almighty God, I, A. B.,
do solemnly SAvear, that I Avill, to the
utmost of my poAver, support the King
and the present government ; and I do
further SAvear, that I Avill use my utmost
exertions to exterminate all the Catholics
of the kingdom of Ireland.” But this
oath, being secret, has latterly been
denied by the Orangemen of respectability
and consequence. It has been generally
credited that it Avas taken by all the
original lodges, and continued afterAvards
to be taken by the loAver classes. The
Orange oath is given in the above terms
in a pamphlet i)ublished in 1797, called
“ A VieAv of the present state of Ireland,”
Avhich is attributed to Arthm’ O’Connor.
But AA'hatever may have been the original
form of engagement, or hoAvever it may
have since been changed by more politic
“ Grand Masters,” nothing is more certain
than that the Orange Society did immedi-
ately and most seriously apply themselves
to the task of exterminating the Catholics.
There is quite as little doubt that this
shocking society Avas encouraged by the
Government, and by most of the magis-
trates and country gentlemen to keep
alive religious animosity, and prevent the
spread of the United Irish organization.
An union of Irishmen upon the just,
liberal, and fraternal basis of this organi-
zation, Avould haA’e rendered impossible
that other “ Union ” on Avhich Mr. Pitt
had set his heart — the Union of Ireland
Avith England. The recall of Lord Fitz-
Avilliam and the arrival of Lord Camden
gave the signal for the bloody anarchy,
through Avhich Ireland Avas doomed to
pass for the next four years, and Avdiich,
it AA^as deliberately calculated, was to end
in her extinction as a nation.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1795—1797.

'‘To Hell or Connaught.” — “Vigour beyond the
Law.” — Lord Carhampton’s Vigour. — Insurrection
Act.— Indemnity Act.— The latter an invitation to
Magistrates to break the law. — Mr. Grattan on tlie
Orangemen. — Ills Resolution. — The Acts Passed.
— Opposed by Grattan, Parsons, and Lord Ed-
ward Fitzgerald. — Insurrection Act destroys
Liberty of the Press. — Suspension of Habeas
Corpus. — U. I. Society. — New Members. — Lord E.
Fitzgerald. — MacNeven. — Emmet. — Wolfe Tone
at Paris. — His Journal. — Clarke. — Carnot. —
Hoche. — Bantry Bay Expedition. — Account of, in
Tone’s Journal. — Fleet Anchors in Bantry Bay. —
Account of the affair by Secret Committee of the
Lords. — Government fully Informed of s:ll the
Projects.

The chief object of the Government and its
agents was now to invent and disseminate
fearful rumours of intended massacres of
all the Protestant people by the Catholics.
Dr. Madden says : “ Efforts were made to
infuse into the mind of the Protestant
feelings of distrust to his Catholic fellow-
countrymen. Popish plots and conspira-
cies were fabricated with a practical
facility, which some influential authorities
conceived it no degradation to stoop to ;
and alarming reports of these dark con-
federations were circulated with a restless
assiduity.” The effects were soon ap-
parent in the atrocities committed by
the Orangemen in Armagh, and by the
magistrates and military in other coun-
ties. The persecuted “ Defenders ” of
Armagh made some feeble attempts to
protect themselves, though almost with-
out arms. This resistance led to the trans-
action called “ Battle of the Diamond,”
near the village of that name, on the 21st
of September, 1795. Several writers have
alleged that the Catholics invited this
conflict by a challenge sent to the Orange-
men. Of course, the latter, having abun-
dance of arms, and being sure of the
protection of the magistrates, were not
slow to accept such an invitation ; but
nothing can be more absurd than to term
the affair a battle. Not one of the Orange
party was killed or wounded. Pour or
five Defenders were killed, and a propor-
tionate number wounded ; and this is the
glorious battle that has been toasted at
Orange banquets from that day to the
present. ' Mr. Emmet* thus describes
the transaction : “ The Defenders were
speedily defeated with the loss of some
few killed and left on the field of battle,
besides the wounded, whom they carried
away. * * ♦ The Catholics, after

this, never attempted to make a stand,

* Pieces of Irish History.

225

but the Orangemen commenced a perse-
cution of the blackest dye. They would
no longer permit a Catholic to exist in
the county. They posted up on the
cabins of these unfortunate victims this
pithy notice, ‘ To Hell or Connaught
and apppointed a limited time in which
the necessary removal of x^ersons and
xwoxierty AA’as to be made. If, after
the expiration of that period, the
notice had not been complied Avith,
the Orangemen assembled, destroyed
the furniture, burned the habitations, and
forced the ruined families to fly elsewhere
for shelter.” Mr. Emmet adds, “ While
these outrages Avere going on, the resident
magistrates Avere not found to resist them,
and in some instances Avere even more
than inactiA^e spectators.” Dr. Madden
has preserved and printed a number of
the “ notices,” ill-spelled, but sufficiently
intelligible, AAdiich Avere posted on thu
cabin doors. But the Orangemen by no
means confined themselves to mere for-
cible ejectment of their enemies. Many
fearful murders Avere committed on the
unresisting people ; and Avhat gives per-
haps the clearest idea of the persecution
is the fact that seven thousand persons Avere
estimated in the next year to have
been either killed or driA^en from their
homes in that one small county alone.*
But the unhappy outcasts, even Avhen
they escaped Avith their lives, had no
shelter to fly to. In most cases they could
only Avander on the mountains until either
death relieved them, or they Avere arrested
and imprisoned ; Avhile the younger men
Avere sent, Avithout ceremony, to one of
the “ tenders,” then lying in various sea-
ports, and thence transferred on board
British men-of-Avar. This Avas the device
originally of Lord Carhampton, then com-
manding in Ireland. It Avas called a
“ vigour beyond the law ” — a delicate
phrase Avhich has since come very much
into use to describe outrages committed
by magistrates against the laAv. During:
all the rest of this year the greater part
of Leinster, Avith portions of Ulster and
Munster, Avere in the utmost terror and
agony ; the Orange magistrates, aided by
the troops, arresting and imprisoning,
Avithout any charge, multitudes of un-
offending people, under one iiretext or
another. It is right to present a samxfle
of the story as told by “loyal men.” Thus,
then, the matter is represented by Sir
Richard Musgrave, p. 145 : “ Lord Car-

* Mr. Plo-vvden, who is as hostile to the Defen-
ders as any Orangeman, says from five to seven
thousand. O’Connor, Emmet, and MacNeven, in
their Memoirs of the Union, say, “ seven thousand
driven from their homes.”

224

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

hampton, finding tlxit the la-svs were silent
and inoperative in the counties which
he visited, and that they did not afford
protection to the loyal and peaceable
subjects, who in most places were obliged
to Jig from their habitations, resolved to
restore them to their usual energy, by the
following salutary system of severity :
‘ In each county he assembled the most
respectable gentlemen and landholders in
it, and having, in concert with them, ex-
amined the charges against the leaders of
this banditti wlio were in prison, hut
defied justice, he, with the concurrence of
these gentlemen, sent the most nefarious
of them on board a tender stationed at
Sligo, to serve in Ilis Majesty’s navy.’ ”
There is no doubt that great numbers of
people were obliged to fiy from their
habitations ; but then these were the very
people whom Lord Carhampton and the
magistrates called banditti, and sent to
the tender as “ nefarious.” Such is, how-
ever, a specimen of the history of these
times as told upon Orange authority.

In the midst of these painful scenes,
Parliament assembled on the 21st of
January, 179G. Lord Camden, in his
speech from the throne, congratulated
them on “ the brilliant successes of the
Austrian armies upon the Ehine ; ” and
then, alluding to dangerous secret socie-
ties, he intimated that certain additional
lowers would be called for ; in other
words, martial law. The Attorney- Gene-
ral lost no time in bringing forward an
Insurrection Act and an Indemnity Act
— the latter being for the purpose of
indemnifying magistrates and military
officers against the consequences of any
of their illegal outrages upon the people.

Mr. Curran wished to know the extent
and nature of that delinquency which it
was intended to indemnify ; when Mr. M.
Beresford observed, the word delinquency
was not applicable to the persons in-
tended ; a part of the country was alarm-
ingly disturbed ; the magistrates and
others invested with power had, in order
to prevent the necessity of proclaiming
martial law universally, acted in that
oarticular district as if martial law were
)roclaimed : this conduct, so far from
jeing delinquency, was justifiable and
.audable, and of happy consequence in
the event.

On the 28th of the month, the Attor-
ney-General adverted to the notice he had
given on the first night of the session, of
liis intention of bringing in two bills ; the
object of one of them was for preventing
in future insurrections, and tumults, and
riots in this kingdom; and the object of
the other bill was to indemnify certain

magistrates and others, who, in their ex-
ertions for the preservation of the public
tranquillity, might have acted against the
forms and rules of law ; he stated that the
bill for the more effectually preventing of
insurrections, tumults, and riots, by per-
sons styling themselves Defenders, and
other disorderly persons, was, however,
repugnant to his feelings.

He said that the act then in force for
administering unlawful oaths was not
sufficiently strong, and the administering
of unlawful oaths was the source of all
the treasonable actions Avhich had taken
place in the country : the bill proposed
that the administering of unlawful oaths
should be felony of death ; but he would
propose that that bill should be but a
temporary law ; there was also a clause
in the bill to enable the magistrates, at
the quarter sessions, to take up all idle
vagrants and persons who had no visible
means of earning a livelihood, and send
them to serve on board the fleet ; he said
he did not propose to hurry this bill
through the House, but give time for the
consideration, as it might be necessary to
add much, and make several alterations.
He then moved for leave “ to bring in a
bill for the more effectual prevention of
insurrections, tumults, and riots, by per-
sons styling themselves Defenders, and
other disorderly persons and leave was
given to bring in the bill. Then he
moved for leave “ to bring in a bill for
indemnifying such magistrates and others
who might have, since the 1st of January,
1795, exceeded the ordinary forms and
rules of law for the preservation of the
public peace, and suppression of insurrec-
tion prevailing in some parts of this king-
dom.”

There Avas earnest opposition against
these two bills, but without effect : they
were both passed into laws ; and they had
the effect, which they Avere certainly in-
tended to have, of exciting, or at least
hastening, the insurrection of 1798. It is
observable that the motHe assigned by the
GoA'ernment ofiicials for passing these laAvs
Avas ahvays the outrages and alleged secret
associations of Defenders. Not a Avord
Avas said about the real outrages and ex-
terminating oaths of Orangemen, Indeed,
the measures in question Avere really
directed not against either Defenders or
Orangemen, but against the United Irish-
men, the only association of Avhich the
Government had the slightest fear. Be-
sides the two bills tlie Attorney-General
proposed four supplemental resolutions
asserting the necessity of giving enlarged
poAvers to magistrates to search for arms
and to make arrests. On the reading of

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

225

these resolutions, Mr. Grattan observed,
that he had heard the right honourable
gentleman’s statement, and did not sup-
pose it to he inflamed ; but he must ob-
serve at the same time it was partial ; he
did, indeed, expatiate very fully and
justly on the offences of the Defenders ;
but with respect to another description of
insurgents, whose barbarities had excited
general abhorrence, he had observed a
complete silence ; that he had proceeded
to enumerate the counties that Avere
afflicted by disturbances, and he had
omitted Armagh of that, neither had
he comprehended the outrages in his
general description, nor in his particular
enumeration; of those outrages he had
received the most dreadful accounts ;
that their object was the extermination
of all the Catholics of that county ; it
was a persecution conceived in the bitter-
ness of bigotry, carried on with the most
ferocious barbarity, by a banditti, who
being of the religion of the state, had
committed with the greater audacity and
confidence, the most horrid murders, and
had proceeded from robbery and massacre
to extermination ; that they had repealed,
by their own authority, all the laws lately
passed in favour of the Catholics, had
•established in the place of those laws the
inquisition of a mob, resembling Lord
George Gordon’s fanatics, equalling them
in outrage, and surpassing them far in
perseverance and success.

That their modes of outrage were
as various as they Avere atrocious ;
they sometimes forced, by terror, the
masters of families to dismiss their
Catholic serA'ants ; they sometimes forced
landlords, by terror, to dismiss their
Catholic tenantry ; they seized as de-
serters, numbers of Catholic Aveavers —
sent them to the county jail, transmitted
them to Dublin, where they remained in
close prison, until some lawyers, from
compassion, pleaded their cause, and pro-
cured their enlargement, nothing appear-
ing against them of any kind whatsoever.
Those insurgents who called themselves
Orange Boys, or Protestant Boys, that is,
a banditti of murderers, committing mas-
sacre in the name of God, and exercising
despotic poAA’er in the name of liberty —
those insurgents had organized their re-
bellion, and had formed themselves into a
committee, avIio sat and tried the Catholic
Aveavers and inhabitants, when appre-
hended falsely and illegally as deserters.
That rebellious committee they called
the committee of elders, Avho, Avhen the
unfortunate Catholic was torn from his
family and his loom, and brought before
them ill judgment upon his case— if he

gave them liquor or money, they some-
times discharged him — otherwise they
sent him to a recruiting officer as a de-
serter. They had very generally given
the Catholics notice to quit their farms
and dwellings, which notice was plastered
on the house, and conceived in these short
but plain words : “ Go to Hell, Connaught
Avon’t receive you — fire and faggot. Will
Tresham and John Thrustout.” That
they followed these notices by a faithful
and punctual execution of the horrid
threat — soon after visited the house,
robbed the family, and destroyed what
they did not take, and finally completed
the atrocious persecutions by forcing the
unfortunate inhabitants to leave their
land, their dAvellings, and their trade, and
to travel Avith their miserable family, and
Avith Avhatever their miserable family
could save from the Avreck of their houses
aud tenements, and take refuge in vil-
lages, as fortifications against iiiA^aders,
Avhere they described themselves, as he
had seen in their affidavits, in the follow-
ing manner : “We (mentioning their

names), formerly of Armagh, weavers,
now of no fixed place of abode or means
of living, &c.” In many instances this
banditti of persecution thrcAv down the
houses of the tenantry, or Avhat
they called racked the house, so that
the family must fly or be buried in
the grave of their oAvn cabin. The ex-
tent of the murders that had been com-
mitted by that atrocious and rebellious
banditti he had heard, but had not heard
them so ascertained as to state them to
that house ; but from all the inquiries he
could make he collected that the Catholic
inhabitants of Armagh had been actually
put out of the protection of the law ; that
the magistrates had been supine or partial,
and that the horrid banditti had met Avith
complete success and, from the magis-
tracy, with very little discouragement.
This horrid persecution, this abominable
barbarity, and this general extermination
had been acknowledged by the magis-
trates, who found the evil had now pro-
ceeded to so shameful an excess, that it
had at length obliged them to cry out
against it. On the 28th of December,
thirty of the magistrates had come to the
folloAving resolution, which Avas evidence
of the designs of the insurgents, and of
their success: “ Resolved, That it appears
to this meeting, that the County of Ar-
magh is at this moment in a state of
uncommon disorder ; that the Roman
Catholic inhabitants are greviously op-
pressed by laAvless persons unknown, who
attack and plunder their houses by night,
and threaten them with instant destruc-

22G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

tion, unless the}' abandon immediately
their lands and habitations.”

The ‘‘ Insurrection Act ” Avas intended
to give magistrates most unlimited powers
to arrest and imprison, and search houses
for arms ; the other act, called of ‘‘ Indem-
nity,” was an actual invitation to break
the law. Mr. Grattan, whose speeches,
more than any records or documents,
illustrate this period of the history of his
country, commenting on this latter act,
says : “ A bill of indemnity went to secure
the offending magistrates against the
consequences of their outrages and ille-
galities ; that is to say, in our humble
conception, the poor were stricken out of
the protection of the law, and the rich out
of its penalties ; and then another bill was
passed to give such lawless proceedings
against His Majesty’s subjects continua-
tion, namely, a bill to enable the magis-
trates to perpetrate by law those offences
which they had before committed against
it ; a bill to legalize outrage, to barbarize
law, and to give the laAv itself the cast
and colour of outrage. By such a bill,
the magistrates Avere enabled, without
legal process, to send on board a tender
His Majesty’s subjects, and the country
Was divided into two classes, or formed
into tAvo distinct nations, living under the
same King, and inhabiting the same
island ; one consisting of the King’s ma-
gistrates, and the other of the King’s
subjects ; the former Avithout restraint,
and the latter Avithout privilege.”

Both the bills passed ; but amongst
those Avho opposed them to the last in the
House of Commons, by the side of Mr.
Grattan and Sir LaAvrence Parsons, it is
Avith pleasure that one finds the honoured
name of Lord EdAA ard Fitzgerald. The
debates on these bills and resolutions
furnish perhaps the most authentic docu-
ments for the history of the time, and
especially for the laAvless outrages Avhich
Avere then devastating the north of Ire-
land. One of the Attorney-General’s
resolutions spoke of the necessity of pun •
ishing persons Avho “ seized by force the
arms of His Majesty’s subjects.” Mr.
Grattan moved an amendment, to add
“ and also the persons of His Majesty’s
subjects, and to force them to abandon
their lands and habitations; ” and in the
third resolution, after the Avords “ mur-
dering those AA'ho had spirit to give infor-
mation,” to add, “ also attempting to seize
the persons, and obliging Ilis Majesty’s
subjects, by force, to abandon their lands
and habitations.”

But the amendment, as it evidently
contemplated the protection of the un-
happy Catholics of Armagh County, Avas

opposed by the Attorney-General, and
rejected as a matter of course.”

One of the clauses of the “ Insurrection
Act” Avas vehemently, but A'ainly, opposed
by Sir LaAvrence Parsons : it Avas to em-
poAver any two magistrates to seize upon
persons who should publish or sell a news-
paper or pamphlet Avhich they, the tAvn
magistrates should deem seditious, and
Avithout any form or trial to send them
on board the fleet. This Avas a total
annihilation of the Press, saving only the
Castle Press,

AYhen it it is recollected that the magis-
tracy and Protestant country gentlemen
of Ireland Avere at that time inflamed
Avith the most furious rage against their
Catholic countrymen, and Avere besides
purposely excited by rumours of intended
Popish risings for the extirpation of Pro-
testants (Avhich many of them in their
ignorance believed), it Avill be seen Avhat
a terrible poAver these acts conferred upon,
them. They natv rally concei\'ed, and
A'ery justly, that the laAv noAv made it a
merit on the’.r part to break the laAv, pro-
A'ided it Avere done to the oppression and
ruin of the Catholic people ; and felt that
they AA'ere turned loose AA'ith a full com-
mission to burn, slry, rob, and ravish. It
Avill be seen that they largely aA^ailed
themselA'es of these privileges. There
Avas but one thing noAv Avanted ; and this
Avas the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
act. This Avas supplied in the next ses-
sion of Parliament, Avhich took place on
the 13th of October ; and from that mo-
ment Ireland stood utterly stripped naked
of all laAv and gOA'ernment.

In the meantime the United Irish So-
ciety had been steadily increasing and
busily labouring and negotiating. Some
valuable members had lately joined it, in
despair of any peaceable or constitutional
remedy. The chief of these Avas the
generous and gallant Lord EdAvard Fitz-
gerald. brother to the then Duke of Lein-
ster, formerly a major in the British
army, and Avho had sei'A^ed under Corn-
Avallis against the Americans. Since his
return to Europe he had seA’eral times
visited the Continent, and mingled much
Avith revolutionary society in France.
Having seen so much of the Avorld, he
Avas not so ignorant and stupid as AA'ere
most of the Irish gentry at that period ;
and his natural nobility of soul AA'as re-
volted by the brutal usage to AA'hich he
saAv liis countrymen subjected at the
hands of the “ Ascendency.” It is pro-
bable, too, that he, the descendant of an
ancient Gallo-IIibernian house, settled in
Ireland more than six centuries, AA-hich
had giA'en chiefs to the ancient Clan-

IIISTORiT OF IRELAND.

227

Geralt, and had been called “ more Irish
than the Irish,” had far more sympathy
with the Irish race than the mob of Crom-
wellian and Williamite grandees who then
ruled the country. Arthur O’Connor was
another valuable accession to the ranks of
the United Irishmen. He was also highly
connected, though by no means equally
so with Lord Edward ; but he was
nephew of Lord Longueville, had sat in
Parliament for Philipstown, and had
laboured zealously for a time on the for-
lorn hope of the opposition, by the side
of Grattan and Curran. Another was
Thomas Addis Emmet, a barrister, a
warm friend of Wolfe Tone, who had
been long intimately associated in prin-
ciple with the leaders of the United Irish
Association, and had been privy to the
design of Tone, to negotiate a French
alliance ; a fourth was Dr. William James
MacNeven, a physician in Dublin, origi-
nally of Galway County, but who had
been educated on the Continent, as most
of the young professional men among the
Catholics then were. These four became
members of the “ Executive Directory ”
of the United Irish Society; and Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, when its military or-
ganization was formed, was maile Com-
mander-in-Chief. It was after the pas-
sage of the Insurrection and Indemnity
acts, and in the recess between the two
sessions of Parliament of 179G, that the
United Irishmen began to make definitive
I)reparations for armed resistance.*

Theobald Wolfe Tone was now in
Paris, having arrived at Havre the 1st
of February, 1796, bearing a letter of in-
troduction to Charles De la Croix, Minis-
ter for Foreign Affairs, from the French
Envoy at Philadelphia. He had another
letter to James Monroe, then the repre-
sentative of the United States in Paris,
who very kindly guided him in his pro-
ceedings to gain the ear of the French
authorities. He had several interviews
with de la Croix, with Clarke (who was
afterwards Due de Feltre), and, what was
of more importance, with the illustrious
Carnot, Chief of the Executive Directory,
who really himself controlled at that mo-
ment the movements of all the French
armies. The journal kept by Tone during
the remainder of that year, is at times
very entertaining, and again extremely
affecting — especially where he records the
few pieces of intelligence which reached
him from Ireland in those days of in-

* See examination of Arthur O’Connor before
the Secret Committee of the House of Lords : Com.
— When did the military orjranization begin?
O’Connor — Shortly after the Executive had re-
solved on resistance to the Irish Government, and !
on an alliance with France in May, 179G.

terrupted communications. For example,
one day at Rennes, he writes : “ October
2^th. — This morning before we set out.
General Harty sent for me, and show^ed
me an English paper that he had just
borrowed, the Morning Post, of September
24th, in which was an article copied from
the Northern Star of the 16th precedent.
By this unfortunate article, I see that
what I have long expected, with the
greatest anxiety, is come to pass. My
dear friends, Russell and Sam. Neilson,
were arrested for high treason on that
day, together with Rowley Osborne, Has-
let t, and a person whom I do not know,
of the name of Shanaghan. The persons
who arrested them were the Marquis of
Downshire, the Earl of Westmeath, and
Lord Londonderry, together, with that
most infamous of all scoundrels, John
Pollock. It is impossible to conceive the
effect this heavy misfortune has upon my
mind. If w^e are not in Ireland in time
enough to extricate them, they are gone ;
for the Government will move heaven,
earth, and hell, to insure their condem-
nation. Good God! If they fall — ”

His progress in negotiating for substan-
tial aid from France had at first been
slow, and sometimes looked discouraging.
He was required to draw up two “me-
morials” upon the state and resources of
Ireland, for the Government ; and in
these memorials, and in the conversations
which he records with Clarke and Carnot,
it is chiefly important to remark, that he
always pressed urgently for a large force,
such as would enable the chiefs of the
United Irishmen at once to establish a
Provisional Government and prevent an-
archy ; that he strenuously opposed a.
recommendation of Clarke, for exciting
both in England and Ireland a species of
chouannerie, or mere peasant insurrection,
with no other object than to create con-
fusion, and operate as a diversion. Tone
admitted that it might be natural and
justifiable for the French to retaliate in
this way Avhat the English had done to
them in La Vendee ; but his own object
was the independence of his country,
which, he rightly thought, would not be
served by mere riot and confusion. We
find also in these notes that Clarke and
Carnot several times questioned him about
the dispositions of the Catholic clergy,
and how they might be expected to act in
case of a landing. He always replied
that no reliance could be placed upon the
clergy at first, especially if the expedition
were not in sufficient force to put down
quickly all resistance ; that they were
opposed to republicanism and revolution,
but if the French went in sufficient force

228

HISTORY OF IREL.^JsD.

the clergy neither Avould nor could give
serious opposition to the liberation of his
country.

While Tone %vas labouring through
these summer months to get those mini-
sters impressed with his own ideas, and
wondering at their hesitation, when it
was in their pov er to deal a mortal blow
upon English power, another negotiation
was going on, which at the time was un-
known to him. It is stated in the Report
of the Lords’ Secret Committee, hereafter
to be cited, that the agent of the United
Irishmen in this second negotiation was
Edward John Lewins, an attorney in
Dublin ; but this is probably an error.
At all events, it is certain that the
French Directory was at that moment
in correspondence with the Irish chiefs
through other channels than W olfe Tone ;
and that Lord Edward Fitzgerald and
Arthur O'Connor had come to Switzer-
land by Avay of Hamburg to meet agents
of the Directory ; and General Hoche
had repaired to Basle, just over the
French frontier, to confer with those
gentlemen. In deciding upon so vast an
armament, the Ministers of the French
Republic were certainly justified in pro-
curing all possible authentic information
about Ireland ; and in checking the me-
morials of Tone by the reports of other
well-known leaders of the United Irish-
men. They had incautiously opened their
negotiations with the Directory through
the medium of M. Barthelemi, of whose
integrity they had no suspicion ; and Dr.
Madden informs us that by this error
“ they at once placed the secret of their
mission in the sympathizing bosom of Mr,
William Fitt.”* The Secret Committee
of the Lords, indeed, in 1798, details the
negotiation with perfect correctness, and
hints at the means by which the expedi-
tion was frustrated. However that may be,
it is evident that the reports of Lord E.
Fitzgerald and Arthur O’Connor re-
specting their friend Wolf Tone were
in all respects satisfactory. The next
time he Avas in the Cabinet of General
Clarke, on his expressing a Avish to be en-
abled to Avrite to his friends, to tell them
he was alh’e and Avell at Paris, Clarke,
says the journal, ansAvered, “ ‘ As to that,
your friends knoAV it already.’ I replied,
•Not that I knoAv of.’ He answered,

• Aye, but I knoAv it, but cannot tell you
at present how.’ He then Avent on to tell
me he did not knoAv Iioav to explain him-
self further, ‘for,’ added he, ‘ if I tell you
ever so little, you Avill guess the rest.’ So
it seems I am a cunning fox Avithout
knowing it. He gave me, lioweA'cr, to
* Madden's United Irishmen, 2d series, p. 390.

understand that he had a communication
open Avith Ireland, and shoAved me a
paper, asking me did I knoAv the hand-
Avriting. I did not. He then read a good
deal. It stated very briefiy, that fourteen
of the counties, including the entire
Xorth, Avere completely organised for the
purpose of throwing off the English yoke
and establishing our independence ; that,
in the remaining eighteen, the organiza-
tion Avas advancing rapidly, and that it
Avas so arranged that the inferiors obeyed
their leaders, Avithout examining their
orders, or even knoAving Avho they Avere,
and every one knew only the person im-
mediately above him. That the militia
Avere about 20,000 men, 17,000 of Avhoni
might be relied on, that there Avere about
12,000 regular troops, Avretched bad ones,
Avho Avould soon be settled in case the
business Avere attempted. Clarke Avas
going on, but stopped here suddenly, and
said, laughing, ‘ There is something there
Avhich I cannot read to you, or you Avill
guess.’ I begged him to use his discretion
Avithout ceremony. He then asked me,
did I knoAV of this organisation ? I re-
plied that I could not, Avith truth, say
positively I kneAv it, but that I had no
manner of doubt of it : that it Avas noAV
tAvelve months exactly since I left Ire-
land, in AA’hich time, I Avas satisfied,
much must have been done in that coun-
try, and that he Avould find in my me-
morials that such an organisation Avas
then begun, Avas rapidly spreading, and,
I had no doubt, Avould soon embrace the
Avhole people. It is curious, the coin-
cidence betAveen the paper he read me
and those I have given here, though,
upon second thoughts, as truth is uni-
form, it Avould be still more extraordinary
if they should vary. I am delighted
beyond measure Avith the progress Avhich
has been made in Ireland since my ban-
ishment. I see they are adA^ancing rapidly
and safely, and personally nothing can be
more agreeable to me than this coinci-
dence betAveen Avhat I haA'e said and
Avritten, and the accounts Avhich I see they
receive here. The paper also stated, as I
have done, that Ave Avanted arms, ammu-
nition, and artillery ; in short, it Avas as
exact in all particulars as if the same
person had Avritten all. This ascertains
my credit in France beyond a doubt.
Clarke then said, as to my business, he
Avas only Avaiting for leters from General
Hoche, in order to settle it finally ; that
I should liaA^e a regiment of cavalry, and
it Avas probable it might be fixed that
day ; that the arrangement of the forces
intended for the expedition aa'us entrusted
to Hoche, by Avhich I see Ave shall go from

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

220

Brittany instead of Holland. All’s one
for that, provided we go at all.”

A few days after this, and just when
poor Tone was almost in his last straits
for money, he was sent for to the Luxem-
bourg Palace, and there, in the Cabinet
of M. Fleury, a very handsome young
man came up to him very warmly, seemed
to have known him all his life, and intro-
duced himself as General Hoche — the
most rising man at that moment among
the young military chiefs of the republic.
It was he who had had the honour of
defending Dunkirk successfully against
the English, and afterwards of defeating
utterly the Vendean force, equipped and
armed by the same English, and landed
at Quiberon under the guns of Admiral
Warren’s fleet. In short, it was against
the English he had done most of his ser-
vice, and he coveted the privilege of com-
manding the formidable expedition which
was now fully resolved on for the libera-
tion of Ireland. He informed Tone that
the latter was to be attached to his per-
sonal staff, with the grade of Chef de Bri-
gade. At last, then, the grand object of
Wolfe Tone’s life and labours seemed on
the point of being attained He was de-
lighted with Hoche, Avho quite agreed Avith
him in his views of the scale on Avhich
the expedition should be made, and of
the necessitj of proceeding by the laAvs
of regular warfare, not of chouarmerie.
For the due comprehension of the true
intent and aims of this celebrated expe-
dition Ave may here give a passage from
Tone’s record of his conference Avith its
chief : —

“ He asked me in case of a landing be-
ing effectuated, might he rely on finding
provisions, and particularly bread ? I said
it Avould be impossible to make any
arrangements in Ireland, previous to the
landing, because of the surveillance of the
Government, but if that Avere once accom-
plished, there would be no Avant of pro-
visions ; that Ireland abounded in cattle,
and, as for bread, I saw by the Gazette
that there Avas not only no deficiency of
corn, but that she Avas able to supply
England, in a great degree, during tlie
late alarming scarcity in that country,
and I assured him, that if the French
were once landed in Ireland, he might
rely that, whoever Avanted bread, tliey
should not Avant it. He seemed satisfied
Avith this, and proceeded to ask me, might
we count upon being able to form a Pro-
Ausory Government, either of the Catholic
Committee, mentioned in my memorials,
or of the chiefs of the Defenders ? I
thought I saAv an open here to come at
the number of troops intended for us, and j

replied that that aa'ouUI depend on the
force Avhich might be landed ; if that
force Avere but trifling, I could not pretend
to say how they might act, but if it Avas
considerable, I had no doubt of their co-
operation. ‘ Undoubtedly,’ replied he,
‘ men Avill not sacrifice themselves when
they do not see a reasonable prospect of
support ; but if I go, you may be sure
I will go in sufficient force.’ He then
asked, did I think ten thousand men
Avould decide them ? I answered, un-
doubtedly, but that early in the business
the Minister had spoken to me of tAvo
thousand, and that I had replied that such
a number could effect nothing. No, re-
plied he, they Avould be overAvhelmed be-
fore any one could join them. I replied,
I Avas glad to hear him give that opinion,
as it Avas precisely Avhat I had stated to
the Minister, and I repeated that, Avith
the force he mentioned, I could have no
doubt of support and co-operation suffi-
cient to form a Provisory GoA^ernment.
He then asked me Avhat I thought of the
priests, or Avas it likely they A\muld give
us any trouble ? I replied I certainly did
not calculate on their assistance, but
neither did I think they Avould be able to
give us any effectual opposition ; that
their influence over the minds of the com-
mon people Avas exceedingly diminished of
late, and I instanced the case of the De-
fenders, so often mentioned in my me-
morials, and in these memorandums. I
explained all this at some length to him,
and concluded by saying, that in pru-
dence Ave should avoid as much as j)ossible
shocking their prejudices unnecessarily,
and that, Avith common discretion, I
thought AA'e might secure their neutrality
at least, if not their support. I mentioned
this merely as my opinion, but added that,
in the contrary event, I Avas satisfied it
Avould be absolutely impossible for them
to take the people out of our hands. We
then came to the army. He asked me
hoAv I thought they would act ? I replied,
for the regulars I could not pretend to
say, but that they AA^ere AA^retched bad
troops ; for the militia, I hoped and be-
licA’-ed that AAdien aa'o AA^ere once organized,
they Avould not only not oppose us, but
come over to the cause of their country
en masse; nevertheless, I desired him to
calculate on their opposition, and make
his arrangements accordingly; that it Avas
the safe policy, and if it become necessary,
it Avas so much gained. He said he Avould,
undoubtedly, make his arrangements so
as to leave nothing to chance that could
be guarded against; that he Avould come
in force, and bring great quantities of
arms, ammunition, stores, and artillery,

230

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

and, for his own reputation, see that all
the arrangements were made on a proper
scale. I Avas very glad to hear him
speak thus ; it sets my mind at ease on
diverse points. He then said there was
one important point remaining, on which
he desired to be satisfied, and that Avas
Avhat form of Government Ave Avould'
adopt on the eA'ent of our success. I
Avas going to answer him Avith great
earnestness, Avhen General Clarke enter-
ed, to request Ave Avould come to dinner
Avith citizen Carnot. We, accordingly,
adjourned the conversation to the apart-
ment of the President, Avherc Ave found
Carnot, and one or two more. Hoche, after
some time, took me aside and repeated his
question. I replied, ‘ Most undoubtedly,
a republic.’ He asked again, ‘ Was I
sure ? ’ I said, as sure as I could be of
anything ; that I kneAV nobody in Ireland
Avho thought of any other system, nor did
I believe there Avas anybody avIio dreamt
of monarchy. He asked me Avas there no
danger of the Catholics setting up one of
their chiefs for king ? I replied, ‘ Not
the smallest,’ and that there Avere no
chiefs amongst them of that kind of emi-
nence. This is the old business again,
but I believe I satisfied Hoche ; it looks
AA’cll to see him so anxious on that topic,
on Avhich he pressed me more than on all
the others.”

From this time preparations Avere
puslied foi'Avard Avith more or less activity ;
but by no means fast cnougli to satisfy
the ardent spirit of Tone. The rendez-
vous for the troops Avas appointed at
Hennes, the old capital of Bretagne ;
Avhile the fleet, consisting of ships of Avar
and transiAorts, Avas getting ready at
Brest. During the several months Avhich
intervened, as neAvs occasionally came in
from Ireland, telling of the systematic
outrages on the country people, and neAv
arrests and measures of “ vigour beyond
the laAv,” his anxiety and impatience re-
doubled. On the 28th of July he Avrites :
“ I see the Orange Boys are playing the
devil in Ireland. 1 have no doubt it is the
work of the Government. Please God, if I
get safe into that country, I Avill settle
those gentlemen, and their instigators
also more esi)ecially.” Again, late in
August, he A^•rites : —

The news, at least the report of to-
day, is, that Kichery and the SiAaniards
are before Lisbon, and that a French
army is in full march across Spain, in
order to enter Portugal ; that Avould be a
blow to Master John Bull fifty times
Avorse than the affair of Leghorn. Why
the unhappy I’ortuguese did not make
their peace at the same time Avith Spain

I cannot conceive, except, as was most
probably the case, they durst not consult
their OAvn safety for fear of offending the
English. What an execrable nation that
is, and Iioav cordially I hate them.
If this affair of Portugal is true,
there Avill not remain one port friendly
to England from Hamburg to Trieste,
and probably much further both Avays.
It is impossible she can stand this
long. Well, if the visitation of Pro-
vidence be sometimes sIoav, it is ahvays
sure. If our expedition succeeds, I think
Ave Avill give her the coup de grace, and
make her pay dear for the rivers of blood
she has made to flow in our poor country,
her massacres, her pillages, and her frauds
AJors, ce sera notre tour’ We shall see!
We shall see ! Oh that I Avere, this fine
morning, at the head of my regiment on
the Cave Hill ! Well, all in good time.”

And still the time flew, Avhile innumer-
able causes of delay interfered AA'ith the
dispatch of the fleet. And in the mean-
time Camden and Carhampton’s reign of
terror Avas in full SAvay, goading the people
to desperation ; and the fiery Chef-de-
Brigade gnawing his OAvn heart in Paris,
or in Rennes.

At last, but not until the 15th of De-
cember, all Avas on board. The troops
AA-ere to hat’e amounted to 15,000 men,
but they Avere actually 13,975 men, Avith
abundance of artillery and ammunition,
and arms for 45,000 men. Tone Avas on
board the line-of-battle ship Indomptahle,
of 80 guns. There AA^ere on the Avhole 17
sail of the line, 13 frigates, 5 corvettes,
making, Avith transports, 43 sail. General
Hoche and the Admiral in command of
the fleet AA^cre on board a frigate ; and the
second General in command of the land
forces AA\as, unfortunately. Grouchy — of
unlucky memory. A Avretched fatality
Avas upon this fine expedition from the
very start. The first night it Avas at sea
it lost both its chiefs ; as the Fraternite
frigate AA^as separated from the others, anti
they iieA^er saAv more of it until after they
had returned to France. An extract,
someAvliat condensed, from Wolfe Tone’s
diary, may form the most interesting
account of the fortunes and fates of the
Bantry Bay Expedition : —

Admiral Morand de Galles, General
Hoche, General Debelle, and Colonel Shee,
are aboard the Fraternite, and God knoAvs
Avhat has become of them. The Avind,
too, continues against us, and, altogether,
I am in terrible Ioav spirits. Hoav if these
damned English should catch us at last,
after having gone on successfully thus
far. Our force leaving Brest Avater
Avas as follows : — Indomptahle, 80 guns ;

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

231

Nestor, Cassard, I^roits de rHomme,
Tourville, Eole, Fougueux, Mucius,
Eedoubtable, Patriote, Pluton, Consti-
tution, Trajan, Watigny, Pegase, Revo-
lution, and the unfortunate Seduisant,
of 74- guns (17 sail of the line;; La
Cocarde, Bravoure, Imniortalite, Bel-
lone, Coquille, Romaine, Sirene, Im-
j)atiente, Surveillante, Charente, Resolue,
Tartare, and Fraternite, frigates of 36
guns (13 frigates) ; Scevola and Fidele,
armes en flutes ; Mutine, Renard, Atalante,
Voltiguer, and Affronteur, corvettes ; and
Nicodeme, Justine, Ville d’Orient, Suff-
ren. Experiment, and Alegre, transports ;
making in all 43 sail. Of these there are
missing this day, at three o’clock, the
Nestor and Seduisant, of 74 ; the Frater-
nite, Cocarde, and Romaine, frigates ; the
Mutine and Voltigeur corvettes ; and
three other transports.

^'December 20^/j.— Last night, in mode-
rate weather, we contrived to separate
iigain, and this morning, at eight o’clock,
we are but fifteen sail in company, with a
foul wind, and hazy. We shall lie beat-
ing about here, within thirty leagues of
Cape Clear, until the English come and
catch us, which Avill be truly agreeable.
At ten, several sail in sight to windward ;
I suppose they are our stray sheep. It
is scandalous to part company twice in
four days in such moderate weather as we
liave had, but sea affairs I see are not our
forte. Captain Bedout is a seaman, Avhich
1 fancy is more than can be said for nine-
tenths of his confreres.

‘■'December 21sL— Last night, just at
sunset, signal for seven sail in the offing ;
all in high spirits, in hopes that it is our
comrades ; stark calm all the fore part of
the night ; at length a breeze sprung up,
and this morning, at daybreak, we are
under Cape Clear, distant about four
leagues, so I have, at all events, once
more seen my country ; but the pleasure
I should otherwise feel at this, is totally
destroyed by the absence of the General,
who has not joined us, and of Avhom Ave
knoAv nothing. The sails Ave saw last
night have disappeared, and AA-e are all
in uncertainty. It is most delicious
AA'cather, Avith a favourable Avind, and
everything, in short, that Ave can desire,
except our absent comrades. At the
moment I Avrite this AA^e are under easy
sail, Avithin three leagues, at most, of the
coast, so that I can discover, here and
there, patches of snoAv on the mountains.
What if the General should not join us !
If Ave cruise here five days, according to
our instructions, the English Avill be upon
us, and then all is over. We are thirty-
five sail in company, and seven or eigiit [

absent. Is that such a separation of our
force, as, under all the circumstances,
Avill Avarrant our following the letter of
our orders, to the certain failure of the
expedition ? If Grouchy and Bouvet be
men of spirit and decision, they Avill land
immediately, and trust to their success
for justification. If they be not, and if
this day passes Avithout our seeing the
General, I much fear the game is up. I
I am in undescribable anxiety, and Cherin,
Avho commands aboard, is a poor creature,
to Avhom it is vain to speak ; not but I
believe he is brave enough but he has a
little mind. There cannot be imagined a
situation more provokingly tantalizing
than mine at this moment, Avithin vieAv,
almost AAuthin reach, of my native land,
and uncertain Avhether I shall ever set
my foot on it. We are noAv, nine o’clock,
at the rendezvous appointed ; stood in for
the coast till tAvelve, Avhen Ave Avere near
enough to toss a biscuit ashore ; at tAvelv’e,
tacked and stood out again, so noAv Ave
have begun our cruise of five days in all
its forms, and sliall, in obedience to the
letter of our instructions, ruin the expedi-
tion, and destroy the remnant of the
French naA'y, Avith a precision and punc-
tuality Avhich AAdll be truly editying.
We opened Bantry Bay, and, in all my
life, rage never entered so deeply into my
heart as Avhen Ave turned our backs on
the coast. At half after one, the Ata-
lante, one of our missing corvettes, hove
in sight, so noAv again Ave are in hopes to
see the General. Oh ! if he Avere in
Grouchy’s place, he Avould not hesitate
one moment. Continue making short
boards ; the Avind foul.

“ December 22(1. — This morning, at eight,
we have neared Bantry Bay considerably,
but the fleet is terribly scattered ; no neAvs
of the Fraternite ; I believe it is the first
instance of an Admiral in a clean frigate,
with moderate Aveather and moonlight
nights, paring company Avith his fleet.
Captain Grammont, our First Lieutenant,
told me his opinion is that she is either
taken or lost, and, in either eA*ent, it is a
terrible bloAv to us. All rests noAv upon
Grouchy, and I hope he may turn out Avell ;
he has a glorious game in his hands, if he
has spirit and talent to play it. If he suc-
ceeds, it Avill immortalize him. I do not
at all like the countenance of the Etat
]\Iajor in this crisis. When they speak of
the expedition, it is in a style of despon-
dency, and Avhen they are not speaking of
it, they are playing cards and laughing ;
they are every one of them brave of their
persons, but I see nothing of that spirit of
enterprise, combined Avith a steady resolu-
tion, AA’hich our present situation demands.

232

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Tlicy stared at me this morning, -when I
said that Grouchy was the man in the
•whole army who had least reason to regret
the a /sence of the General, and began
to talk of responsibility and difficulties,
as if any great enterprise was with-
out responsibility and difficulties. I
was burning with rage, however I said
nothing, and will say nothing until I get
ashore, if ever I am so happy as to arrive
there. "NVe are gaining the Bay by slow
degrees, with a head wind at east, Avhere
it has hung these five weeks. To-night
we hope, if nothing extraordinary hap-
pens, to cast anchor in the mouth of the
Bay, and work np to-morrow morning;
these delays are dreadful to my impa-
tience. I am now so near the shore that
I can see, distinctly, two old castles, yet
I am utterly uncertain whether 1 shall
ever set foot on it. According to appear-
ances, Bouvet and Grouchy are resolved
to proceed ; that is a great point gained,
however. Two o’clock; we have been
tacking ever since eight this morning,
and I am sure we have not gained one
hundred yards ; the wind is right ahead,
and the fleet dispersed, several being far
to leeward. I have been looking over the
schedule of our arms, artillery, and am-
munition ; Ave arcAvell provided ; Ave have
41,1 GO stand of arms, tAventy pieces of
field artiller}', and nine of siege, includ-
ing mortars and hoAvitzers ; Gl,200 barrels
of poAvder, 7,000,000 musket cartridges,
and 700,000 flints, besides an infinite
variety of articles belonging to the train,
but A\'e have neither sabres nor pistols for
the cavalry ; hoAvever, aa c have nearly
three regiments of hussars embarked,
so that Ave can dispense AA'ith them.
I continue A'ery discretly to say little
or nothing, as my situation just noAv is
rather a delicate one ; if Ave AA cre once
ashore, and things turn out to my mind,
I shall soon be out of my trammels, and,
perhaps in that respect, I may be better
off Avith Grouchy than AAuth Iloche. If
the people act AA’ith spirit, as I hope they
Avill, it is no matter Avho is general, and if
they do not, all the talents of Iloche
AA’ould not saA^e us ; so it comes to the same
thing at last. At half-past six cast
anchor off Beer Island, being still four
leagues from our landing-place , at AA’ork
with General Cherin, Avriting and trans-
lating proclamations, etc., all our printed
papers, including my tAAO pamphlets,
being on board the Fraternite', AA’hich is
pleasant.

“ JJeceinher 23c/. — Last night it bleAv a
heavy gale from the eastAvard, Avith snoAv,
so that the mountains are covered this
morning, AA'hich will render our bivouacs

extremely amusing. It is to be observed,,
that of the thirty-two points of the com-
pass, the E. is precisely the most unfa-
A'ourable to us. In consequence, Ave are
this morning separated for the fourth
time; sixteen sail, including nine or ten
of the line, Avith BouA^et and Grouchy,
are at anchor Avith us, and about tAventy
are bloAvn to sea ; luckily the gale set
from the shore, so I am in hopes no mis-
chief Avill ensue. The Avind is still high,
and, as usual, right ahead ; and I dread a
visit from the English, and altogether I
am in great uneasiness. Oh ! that Ave
Avere once ashore, let Avhat might ensuo
after ; I am sick to the very soul of this^
suspense. It is curious to see hoAv things
are managed in this best of all possible
Avorlds. We are here, sixteen sail, great
and small, scattered up and doAvn in a
noble bay, and so disxAersed that there are
not tAvo together in any spot, saA’e one,
and there they are noAv so close that if it
bloAvs to-night as it did last night, they
Avill inevitably run foul of each other,
unless one of them jirefers driving on
shore. We lie in this disorder expecting
a visit from the English every hour,
AA’ithout taking a single step for our
defence, even to the common one of
having a frigate in the harbour’s mouth
to give us notice of their approach ; to
judge by aiqAearances, Ave have less to
dread here than in Brest Avater, for-
Avhen Ave Avere there, Ave had four cor-
vettes stationed off the gonlet, besides the
signal jAOSts. I confess this degree of se-
curity x>asses my comprehension. The day
has passed Avithout the appearance of one
vessel, friend or enemy, the Avind rather
more moderate, but still ahead. To-night,
on examining the returns Avith Wamlre,
Chef d’Etat Major of the Artillery, I find
our moans so reduced by the absence of
the missing, that I think it hardly lAOssible
to make an attempt here Avith any pros-
pect of success ; in consequence, I took
Cherin into the Captain’s room, and told
him frankly my opinion of our actual
state, and that I thought it our duty,
since Ave must look upon the main object
as noAv unattainable, unless the Avhole of
our friends returned to-morroAA", and the
English gave us our OAvn time, Avhich Avas
hardly to be expected, to see Avhat could
be best done for the honour and interest
of the Republic, Avith the force Avhich re-
mained in our hands, and I proposed to
him to give me the Legion des Francs, a
company of the Artiilerie hge're, and as
many officers as desired to come volun-
teers in the expedition, Avith AA’hat arms
and store remained, Avhich are iioav re-
duced by our separation to four field

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

233^

pieces, 20,000 firelocks at most, 1000 lbs.
of powder, and 3,000,000 cartridges, and
to land us in Sligo Bay, and let us make
the best of our way ; if we succeeded, the
Republic would gain infinitely in reputa-
tion and interest, and, if we failed, the loss
would be trifling, as the expense was al-
ready incurred, and as for the legion, he
knew Avdiat kind of desperadoes it was
composed of, and for what purpose ; con-
sequently, in the worst event, the Repub-
lic Avould be well rid of them ; finally,
I added, that though I asked the com-
mand, it was on the supposition that none
of the Generals would risk their reputa-
tion on such a desperate enterprise, and
that if another was found I would be
content to go as a simple volunteer. This
was the outline of my proposal, which I
pressed on him with such arguments as oc-
curred to me, concluding by observing that
as a foreigner in the French service, my
situation was a delicate one, and if I were
simply an officer, I Mmuld obej in silence
the orders of superiors, but from my con-
nections in Ireland, having obtained the
confidence of the Directory, so far as to
induce them to appoint me to the rank of
Chef -de- Brigade, and of General Iloche,
who had nominated me Adjutant-General,
I thought it my duty, both to France ami
Ireland, to speak on this occasion, and
that I only offered my plan as a pis aller,
in case nothing better suggested itself.
Cherin answered that I did very right to
give my opinion, and that as he expected
a council of war would be called to-
morrow, lie would bring me with him,
and I should have an opportunity to press
it. The discourse rested there, and to-
morrow we shall see more, if we are not
agreeably surprised, early in the morn-
ing, by a visit from the English, which is
highly probable. I am now so near the
shore that I can in a manner touch the
sides of Bantry Bay with my right and
left hand, yet God knows Avhether I shall
ever tread again on Irish ground. Another
thing, we are now three days in Bantry
Bay ; if Ave do not land immediately, the
enemy Avill collect a superior force, and
perhaps repay us our victory of Quiberon.
In an enterprise like ours, everything de-
pends upon the promptitude and audacity
of our first movements, and Ave are here, I
am sorry to say it, most pitifully languid.
It is mortifying, but that is too poor a
word ; I could tear my flesh Avith rage and
vexation, but that advances nothing, and
so I hold my tongue in general, and de-
vour my melancholy as I can. To come
so near and then to fail, if Ave are to fail !
A,nd every one aboard seems noAV to have
given up all hopes.

‘•'‘December 24//<. — This morning the
Avhole Etat Major has been miraculously
converted, and it was agreed, in full coun-
cil, that General Cherin, Colonel Waudre,
Chef d’Etat Major of the Artillery,
and myself, should go aboard the Immor-
talite", and press General Grouchy in the
strongest manner to proceed on the ex-
pedition, with the ruins of our scattered
army. Accordingly, we made a signal to
speak with the Admiral, and in about
an hour Ave were aboard. I must do
Grouchy the justice to say, that the mo-
ment we gave our opinion in favour of
proceeding, he took his part decidedly,
and like a man of spirit ; he instantly set
about preparing the ordre de bataiUe, and
Ave finished it without delay. We are-
not more than G,500 strong, but they are
tried soldiers Avho have seen fire, and I
have the strongest hopes that, after all,
Ave shall bring our enterprise to a glori-
ous termination. It is a bold attempt,
and truly original. All the time Ave Avere-
preparing the ordre de bataiUe, Ave AA'cre-
laughing most immoderately at the po-
verty of our means, and I believe, umier
the circumstances, it Avas the merriest
council of Avar that Avas ever held ; but
‘ Des Chevaliers Francais tel est le caractere'
Grouchy, the Commander-in-Chief, never
had so few men under his orders since he
was Adjutant-General , Waudre, Avho is
lieutenant-colonel, finds himself now at
the head of the artillery, Avhich is a furi-
ous park, consisting of one piece of eight,
one of four, and tAVo six inch hoAvitzers ;
Avhen he Avas a captain, he never com-
manded feAver than ten pieces, but noAv
that he is in fact General of the Artillery,
he prefers taking the field Avitli four, lie
is a gallant fellow, and offered, on my
proposal last night, to remain with me
and command his company, in case Gen-
eral Grouchy had agreed to the proposal
I made to Cherin. It is altogether an
enterprise truly unique ; Ave ha\'e not one
guinea ; Ave have not a tent ; Ave have not
a horse to draAv our four pieces of artil-
lery ; the General-in-Chief marches on
foot ; we leave all our baggage behind us ;■
Ave have nothing but the arms in our
hands, the clothes on our backs, and a
good courage; but that is sufficient. With
all these original circumstances, such as
I believe never Avere found united in an
expedition of such magnitude as that Ave
are about to attempt, Ave are all as gay as
larks. I never saAv the French character
better exemplified than in this morning’s
business. Well, at last I believe Ave are
about to disembark ; God knows Iioav I
long for it. But this infernal easterly
wind continues without remorse, and

234

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

though we have been under way three or
four hours, and made I believe three hun-
dred tacks, we do not seem to my eyes to
have gained one hundred yards in a
straight line. One hour and a half of
good wind would carry us up, and per-
haps we may be yet two days. My enemy,
the wind, seems just now, at eight o’clock,
to relent a little, so w^e may reach Bantry
by to-morrow. The enemy has now
had four days to recover from his panic,
and prepare to receive us ; so much the
worse, but I do not mind it. We i^urpose
to make a race for Cork, as if the devil
were in our bodies, and w^hen we are
fairly there, we will stop for a day or tw'o
to take breatli. and look about us. From
Bantry to Cork is about forty-five miles,
wiiich, witli all our efforts, will take us
three days, and I suppose we may have a
brush by the way, but I think we are able
to deal with any force that can, at a week’s
notice, be brought against us.

“ December 2oth. — These memorandums
ure a strange mixture. Sometimes I am
in preposterously high spirits, and at other
times I am as dejected, according to the
posture of our affairs. Last night I had
the strongest expectations that to-day we
should debark, but at two this morning I
was awakened by the wind. I rose im-
mediately, and, wrapping myself in my
great coat, walked for an hour in the
gallery, devoured by the most gloomy
refiections. The wind continues right
ahead, so that it is absolutely impossible
to work up to the landing place, and God
know’s when it will change. The same
wind is exactly favourable to bring the
English upon us, and these cruel delays
give the enemy time to assemble his entire
force in this neighbourhood, and perhaps
^it is, unfortunately, more than perhaps),
by his superiority in numbers, in cavalry,
in artillery, in money, in provisions, in
short in everything we w'ant, to crush us,
supposing w'e are even able to effectuate
a landing at last, at the same time that
the fleet will be caught as in a trap. Had
w'e been able to land the first day and
march directly to Cork, w^e should have
infallibly carried it by a coup de main;
and then we should have a footing in the
country, but as it is— if w^e are taken, my
fate will not be a mild one ; the best I
can expect is to be shot as an emigre rentre,
unless I have the good fortune to be killed
in the action ; for most assuredly if the
enemy Avill have us, he must fight for us.
Ferhaps I may be reserved for a trial, for
the sake of striking terror into others, in
which case I shall be hanged as a traitor,
and emboweled, &c. As to the emboweling,
^•je vi'en Jiche' if ever they hang me, they

are welcome to embowel me if they please.
These are pleasant prospects ! Nothing
on earth could sustain me now, but the
consciousness that I am engaged in a just
and righteous cause. For my family, I
have, by a desperate effort, surmounted
my natural feelings so far, that I do not
think of them at this moment. This day,
at twelve, the wfind blow’s a gale, still from
the east, and our situation is now as cri-
tical as possible, for it is morally certain
that this day or to-morrow on the morn-
ing, the English fleet Avill be in the har-
bour’s mouth, and then adieu to every-
thing. In this desperate state of affairs,
I proposed to Cherin to sally out with all
our forces, to mount to the iShannon, and,
disembarking the troops, make a forced
march to Limerick, which is probably
unguarded, the garrison being, I am pretty
certain, on its march to oppose us here ;
to pass the river at Limerick, and, by
forced marches push to the North. I
detailed all this on a paper which I will
keep, and shoAved it to Captain Bedout,
and all the Generals on board, Cherin,
Simon, and Chasseloup. They all agreed
as to the advantages of the plan, but after
settling it, Ave find it impossible to com-
municate Avith the General and Admiral,
Avlio are in the Imniortalite', nearly two
leagues ahead, and the Aviml is noAv so
high and foul, and the sea so rough, that
no boat can live, so all communication is
impracticable, and to-morrow morning it
Avill, most probably, be too late ; and on
this circumstance, perhaps, the fate of
the expedition and the liberty of Ireland
depends. I cannot conceive for Avhat
reason the two Commanders-in- Chief are
shut up together in a frigate. Surely
they should be on board the flag-ship.
But that is not the first misfortune re-
sulting from this arrangement. Had
General Hoche remained, as he ought, on
board the Indomptable, AA’ith his Etat
Major, he Avould not haAe been separated
and taken by the English, as he most
probably is ; nor should Ave be in the
difficulties Ave uoav find ourselves in,
and Avhich most probably to-morroAV
Avill render insurmountable. 'Well, it
does not signify complaining. Our first
capital error Avas in setting sail too
late from the Bay of Camaret, by
Av'hich means Ave Avere obliged to pass
the Kaz in the night, Avhich caused the
loss of the Seduisant, the separation of
the fleet, the capture of the General, and
above all, the loss of time resulting from
all this, and Avhich is never to be re-
covered. Our second error AA’as in losing
an entire day in cruising off the Bay, Avhen
we might have entered and effected a

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

235

landing with thirty-five sail, which would
have secured everything, and now our
third error is having our Comraander-in-
Cljief separated from the Etat Major,
which renders all communication utterly
impossible. My prospects at this hour
are as gloomy as possible. I see nothing
before me, unless a miracle be wrought in
our favour, but the ruin of the expedi-
tion, the slavery of my country, and my
own destruction. Well, if I am to fall, at
least I will sell my life as dear as indi-
vidual resistance can make it. So now I
have made up my mind. I have a merry
Christmas of it to-day.

December 2Qth. — Last night, at half
after six o’clock, in a heavy gale of wind
still from the east, we were surprised by
the Admiral’s frigate running under our
quarter, and hailing the Indomptable,
with orders to cut our cable and put to
sea instantly ; the frigate then pursued
her course, leaving us all in the utmost
astonishment. Our first idea Avas that it
might be an English frigate, lurking in
the bottom of the Bay, which took advan-
tage of the storm and darkness of the
night to make her escape, and wished to
separate our squadron by this stratagem ;
for it seems utterly incredible that an
Admiral should cut and run in this man-
ner, without any previous signal of any
kind to Avarn the fleet, and that the first
notice Ave should have of his intention,
should be his hailing us in this extra-
ordinary manner, Avith such unexpected
und peremptory orders. After a short
consultation Avith his officers, (considering
the storm, the darkness of the night, that
we have tAvo anchors out, and only one
spare one in the hold), Captain Bedout re-
solved to Avait, at all events, till to-morroAv
morning, in order to ascertain Avdiether it
was really the Admiral avIio hailed us.
The morning is noAv come, the gale con-
tinues, and the fog is so thick that Ave can-
not see a ship’s length ahead ; so here Ave lie
in the utmost uncertainty and anxiety. In
all probability aa’o are uoav left Avithout
Admiral or General ; if so, Cheriii Avill com-
mand the troops, and Bedout the fleet,
but, at all events, there is an end of the
expedition. Certainly we have been per-
secuted by a strange fatality, from the
very night of our departure to this hour.
We have lost tAvo Commanders-in-Chief ;
of four Admirals not one remains ; Ave
have lost one ship of the line, that Ave knoAv
of, and probably many others of Avhicli
Ave knoAv nothing ; Ave have been noAv six
days in Bantry Bay, Avithin five hundred
yards of the shore, Avithout being able to
effectuate a landing ; Ave have been dis-
persed four times in four days, and, at

this moment, of forty-three sail, of Avhich
the expedition consisted, we can muster
of all sizes but fourteen. There only
wants our falling in Avith the English to
complete our destruction ; and, to judge
of the future by the past, there is every
probability that that will not be Avanting.
All our hopes are now reduced to get
back in safety to Brest, and I believe Ave
Avill set sail for that port the instant the
weather Avill permit. I confess, myself, I
now look on the expedition as impracti-
cable. The enemy has had seA’en days to
l^repare for us, and three, or perhaps four,
days more before Ave could arrive at Cork ;
and Ave are now too much reduced, in all
respects, to make the attempt Avith any
prospect of success — so all is over ! It
is hard, after having forced my Away thus
far, to be obliged to turn back ; but it is
my fate, and I must submit. NotAvith-
standing all our blunders, it is the dreadful
stormy Aveather and easterly Avinds, Avhich
have been bloAving furiously and Avithout
intermission, since Ave made Bantry Bay,
that have ruined us. W ell, England has not
had such an escape since the Spanish Ar-
mada, and that expedition, like ours, Avas
defeated by tlie weather ; the elements
fight against us, and courage is here of
no avail. Well, let me think no more
about it ; it is lost, and let it go !

December 21th. — Yesterday several A’es-
sels, including the Indomptable, dragged
their anchors several times, and it Avas Avith
great difficulty they rode out the gale.
At tAvo o’clock, the lievolution, a 74, made
signal that she could hold no longer,
and, in consequence of the Commodore’s
permission, avIio uoav commands our little
squadron, cut her only cable and put to
sea. In the night, the Patriote and
Pluton, of 74 each, Avere forced to go to
sea, Avith the Nicomede flute, so that this
morning Ave are reduced to seven sail of
the line and one frigate. Any attempt
here is uoav desperate, but I still think if
Ave Avere debarked at the mouth of the
Shannon Ave might yet recover all. At
ten o’clock the Commodore made signal
to get under Avay, Avhich Avas delayed by
one of the ships, Avhich required an hour
to get ready. This hour Ave availed our-
selves of to hold a council of AA'ar, at
Avhich Avere present Generals Cherin,
Ilarty, and Humbert, Avho came from
their ships for that purpose; Adjutant-
Generals Simon, Chasseloup, and myself ;
Lieutenant-Colonel Waudre, commanding
the artillery, and Favory, Captain of En-
gineers, together Avith Commodore Be-
dout, Avho was invited to assist ; General
Harty, as senior officer, being President.
It was agreed that, our force being uoav

236

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

reduced to 4168 men, our artillery to
two four-pounders, our ammunition to
1,500,000 cartridges and 500 rounds for
the artillery, with 500 pounds of powder
— this part of the country being utterly
wild and savage, furnishing neither pro-
visions nor horses, and especially as the
enemy, having seven days’ notice, toge-
ther with three more which it would
require to reach Cork, supposing we even
met with no obstacle, had time more than
sufficient to assemble his forces in num-
bers sufficient to crush our little army ;
considering, moreover, that this province
is the only one of the four which has tes-
tified no disposition to revolt ; that it is
the most remote from the party which is
ready for insurrection ; and, finally, Cap-
tain Bedout having communicated his
instructions, which are to mount as high
as the Shannon, and cruise there five
days ; it was unanimously agreed to quit
Bantry Bay directly, and proceed for the
mouth of the Shannon, in hopes to rejoin
some of our scattered companions ; and
when we are there we will determine, ac-
cording to the means in our hands, what
part Ave shall take. I am the more con-
tent Avith this determination as it is sub-
stantially the same with the paper Avhich
I read to General Cherin and the rest
the day before yesterday. The Avind,
at last, has come round to the soutliAvard,
and the signal is noAv flying to get under
Avay. At half after four, there being
every appearance of a stormy night, three
vessels cut their cables and put to sea.
The Indomptable, having Avith great diffi-
culty Aveighed one anchor, Ave AA ere forced
at length to cut the cable of the other,
and make the best of our Avay out of the
Bay, being folloAved by the Avhole of our
little squadron, noAv reduced to ten sail,
of Avhich seven are of the line, one frigate,
and tAvo corvettes or luggers.

December 2Sth. — Last night it bleAv a
perfect hurricane. At one this morning,
a dreadful sea took the ship in the
quarter, stove in the quarter gallery, and
one of the dead-lights in the great cabin,
AA’hich Avas instantly filled Avith Avater to
the depth of three feet. Immediately
after this bloAv, the Avind abated, and at
daylight, having run nine knots an hour,
under one jib only, during the hurricane,
Ave found ourseh'es at the rendezvous,
liaAdng parted company Avith three ships
of the line and the frigate, AA'hich makes
our sixth separation. The frigate Coquille
joined us in the course of the day, Avhich
AA'e spent standing off and on the shore,
Avithout being joined by any of our miss-
ing companions.

“ December 2dth. — At four this morning

the Commodore made the signal to steer
for France ; so there is an end of our
expedition for the present, perhaps for
ever. I spent all yesterday in my ham-
mock, partly through sea-sickness, and
much more through A'exation. At ten,
Ave made prize of an unfortunate brig,
bound from Lisbon to Cork, laden with
salt, Avhich Ave sunk.

“ December 30th and 31sL — On our Avay
to Brest. It Avill be Avell supposed I am
in no great humour to make memoran-
dums. This is the last day of the year
1796, Avhich has been a A^ery remarkable
one in my history.

Januaj'y 1st, 1797. — At eight this
morning made the Island of Ushant, and
at tAvelve opened the Goidet. We arrive
seA'en sail : the Indomptable of 80 ; the
Watigny, Cassard, and Eole. 74; the
Coquille, 36 ; the Atalante, 20, and the
Vautour lugger, of 14. We left Brest
fort.y-three sail, of Avhich seventeen Avere
of the line. I am utterly astonished that
Ave did not see a single English ship-of-
Avar, going nor coming back. They must
have taken their measures A'ery ill, not to
intercept us, but perhaps they have
picked up some of our missing ships.
AVell, this evening will explain all, and
Ave shall see noAv Avhat is become of our
four Admirals, and of our tAvo Generals-
in-Chief.”

So ended the great “ Bantry Bay Ex
pedition.” Fifteen days after the arrival
of Tone at Brest, the missing frigate
La Fraternite, Avith General Hoche and
the Admiral on board, made her Avay,
after many dangers, into the port of La.
Kochelle.

In addition to the hostility of the ele-
ments, this attempt at an invasion of
Ireland had certain other disadvantages
to contend Avith : it AA’as directed to that
portion of the island Avhich Avas the least
ripe for insurrection, and in Avhich the
United Irish Society Avas least extended
and organized. It arrived at a part of the
coast surrounded by desolate mountains,
AA'here there Avere but small resources for
a commissariat, Avhere no good horses
could be found for the artillery and Avag-
gons, and Avhere the Avretched population
had scarcely ever heard either of a French
Kepublic, or of an United Irish Society,
or of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
This Avas against the Avishes and counsels
of Wolfe Tone, Avho Avas in favour of the
landing somewhere near Dublin or Bel-
fast. So ignorant and so ill-prepared
were the natives of Bear and Bantry, that
they regarded the liberating force as a
hostile invasion ; and Plowden informs
us that Avhen a boat was sent ashore from.

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

237

the squadron to reconnoitre the country,
“ it was immediately captured, and mul-
titudes appeared on the beach in readiness
to oppose a landing.” In addition to this,
the English Government had always full
and accurate information as to the whole
plan of invasion, and had thus been en-
abled to deceive the leaders of the United
Irishmen by false information. The whole
affair is thus accurately explained in the
Report of the Secret Committee of the
House of Lords in 1798 (Lords’ Journal,
viii., p. 142) : —

“It appears by the Report of the Secret
Committee of this House, made in the last
session of Parliament, that a messenger had
been dispatched by the Society of United
Irishmen to the Executive Directory of
the French Republic, upon a treasonable |
mission, between the month of June, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-five,
and the month of January, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety -six, at which
time the messenger so sent had returned
to Ireland ; and your committee have
strong reason to believe that Edward
John Lewins, who now is, and has been
for a considerable time, the accredited
resident ambassador of the Irish Rebel-
lious Union to the French Republic, was
the person thus despatched in the summer
jf one thousand seven hundred and ninety-
five. It appears to your committee that
the proposition so made by the French
Directory, of assistance to the rebels of
this kingdom, w'as taken into considera-
tion by the Executive Directory of the
Irish Union immediately after it w^as
communicated to them, that they did
agree to accept the proffered assistance,
and that their determination was made
known to the Directory of the French
Republic by a special messenger ; and
your committee have strong reason to be-
lieve that the invasion of this kingdom
which was afterwards attempted, w^as
fully arranged at an interview which took
place in Switzerland, in the summer of
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-
six, near the French frontier, between
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the aforesaid
Mr. Arthur O'Connor, and General
Hoche. It appears to your committee,
that in the month of October or Novem-
ber, one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-six, the hostile armament which
soon after appeared in Bantry Bay was
announced to the Irish Directory by a
special messenger dispatched from France,
who was also instructed to inquire into
the state of preparation in which this
country stood, which armament was then
stated to the Irish Directory to consist of
fifteen thousand troops, together with a

considerable quantity of arms and ammu-
nition, intended for the use of the Irish
Republican Union. In a few' days after
tiie departure of the messenger who had
been thus sent to announce the speedy
arrival of this armament on the coasts
of this kingdom, it appears to your
committee that a letter from France
was received by the Irish Directory, which
teas considered by them as authentic^
stating that the projected descent was
postponed for some months, and to this
circumstance it has been fairly acknow-
ledged to your committee, by one of the
Irish Directory, that this country w^as
indebted for the good conduct of the
people in the Province of Munster, when
the enemy appeared in Bantry Bay. He
has confessed, that these contradictory com-
munications threw the Irish Directory off
their guard, in consequence of wdiicli they
omitted to prepare the people for the
reception of the enemy. He has con-
fessed that the people w'ere loyal because
they were left to themselves.”

CHAPTER XXX.

1797.

Reign of Terror in Armagh County. — No Orange-
men ever Punished. — " Defenders” called Ban-
ditti.— “ Faulkner's Journal,” Organ of the Castle.
— Cheers on the Orangemen. — Mr. Curran’s State-
mentof the Havoc iiiAnnagh. — Increased Kancour
against Catholics and U. I. after the Bantry Bay
Affair. — Efforts of Patriots to Establish a Per-
manent Armed Force. — Opposed by Government.

■ — And Why. — Proclamation of Counties. — Bank
Ordered to Suspend Specie Payments. — Alarm. —
Dr. Duigenan. — Secession from Parliament of
Grattan, Curran, &c. — General Lake in the
North. — “Northern Star”Oflice Wrecked by
Troops. — Proclamation. — Outrages in the Year
1797. — Salutary Effect of the United Irish System
on the Peace of the Country. — Armagh Assizes.
— Slanderous Report of a Secret Committee. —
Good Effects of United Irishism in the South. —
Miles Byrne. — Wexford County.

During the whole of the year that saw
Tone negotiating in France for the great
Bantry Bay expedition, the Government
in Ireland, well seconded by magistrates,
sheriffs, military officers and Orangemen
was steadily proceeding, wfith a ferocious
deliberation, in driving the people to
utter despair. Many districts of Armagh
County w'ere already covered wutli the
blackened ruins of poor cabins, lately the
homes of innocent people, thousands of
whom, w'ith their old people, their w'omen
and little children, were w'andering home-
less and starving, or were already dead of

238

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

hunger and cold, -when the Grand Jury
of Armagh, at the Lent Assizes, be-
thinking them that it would be well to
soften or do away with the impressions
produced by these horrible events, and
the comments of which they were the
subject, agreed to an address and resolu-
tion expressive of their full determina-
tion to put the coercion laws in force, and to
enforce strict justice. Mr. Plowden says,
artlessly : “ Their annunciation of im-
partial justice, and a resolution to punish
offenders of every denomination, was ra-
ther unseasonable, when there remained
no longer any of one denomination to
commit outrages upon, or to retaliate
injuries.” lie miglit have added that
many of the gentlemen composing that
Grand Jury had themselves encouraged
and participated in the extermination of
the Catholics. But they knew very well
that no coercion laAv of that Parliament j
was at all intended to be enforced against |
Orangemen ; that the “ unlawful oaths I
forbidden under pain of death,” did not j
mean to include the purple oath of Orange- j
men to extirpate Catholics, but only the }
United Irish oath, to encourage brotherly j
union, and seek “ an iriipartial represen-
tation for all the people of Ireland.” In
fact, no Orangeman was ever prosecuted ;
nor was any punishment ever inflicted on
the exterminators of Armagh Catholics.

This statement might seem almost
incredible in any civilized nation ; but the
proofs of the gross partiality of the Legis-
lature and Government, or rather of their
strict alliance with the Orange faction,
are too numerous and clear to be doubted.
For example, a report of a secret com-
mittee of the Commons, shortly after this
time, informs us, “ that in the summer of
1796, the outrages committed by a ban-
ditti, calling themselves Defenders, in the
Counties of Koscommon, Leitrim, Long-
ford, Meath, Westmeath, and Kildare,
together with a religious feud prevailing
in the County of Armagh, induced the |
Legislature to pass a temporary act of j
Parliament, generally called the Insur- i
rection Act, by which the Lord-Lieuten- 1
ant and Council were enabled, upon the |
requisition of seven magistrates of any j
county, assembled at a sessions of the
peace to proclaim the whole, or any part
thereof, to be in a state of disturbance ;
within which limits this law, giving in-
creased power to the magistracy, was to
have operation.” What is here mildly
called a “religious feud” was the extir-
pation of one sect of people by another,
on account of their religion alone.

The British Go'. eminent in Ireland has
never been able to dispense with an organ

at the Press, in the pay of the Castle.
The chief Government paper of that day
Avas Faidknei'^s Journal, Avhich was then
savage in its denunciations of Catholics,
Defenders, and United Irishmen, but had
only praise for the Armagh Orangemen.

The Dublin Evening Post of the 24tli of
September, 1796, contained the following
observations : “ The most se\"ere stroke
made against the character and conduct
of the Viceroy, as a moral man and first
magistrate of a free people, AA’ho • ought
not to hold the sword in vain,' nor to exer-
cise it partially, has been in Faulkner's
Journal of this day. That hireling print
is undeniably in the pay of his lordship’s
administration ; and Avhat administration
permits, it is supposed to prompt or
patronize. In that print, the blind fury
of the banditti which usurps and dis-
graces the name of Orange in the North, is
applauded, and all their bloody excesses
justified. Murder in all its horrid forms,
assassinations in cold blood, the mutila-
tion of members Avithout respect to age or
sex, the firing of Avhole hamlets, so that
Avhen the inhabitants have been looked
after nothing but their ashes Avere to be
found ; the atrocious excursions of furi-
ous hordes, armed Avith sAvord, fire, and
faggot, to exterminate a people for pre-
suming to obey the divine command,
Avritten by the finger of God himself,

‘ Honour thy father and thy mother,’ and
walking in the religion Avhich seemed
good in their eyes. These are the flagi-
tious enormities Avhich attract the mer-
cenary applause of Faidkner's Journal, the
literary prop of the Camden administra-
tion.”

And in this A'ery same month of Septem-
ber, Avhile Faudener's Journal AAas doing
this kind of service for Castle pay, the
Northern Star of Belfast, an able and
moderate organ of the United Irishmen,
had its office attacked and ransacked by
soldiers ; Samuel Neilson, its editor, and
several others Avere arrested, carried to
Dublin, throAvn into prison, and kept there
for more than a year Avithout having been
brought to any trial.

On the 13th of October, 1796, Parlia-
ment met. In his speech from the throne,
His Excellency noAv for the first time took
tender and oblique notice of the disturb-
ances of Armagh. “ I have, hoAveA'er, to
lament that in one part of the country
good order has not yet been entirely
restored ; and that in other districts a
treasonable system of secret confeder-
ation, by the administering of illegal
oaths, still continues, although no means
within the reach of Government have
been left untried to counteract it,”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

230'

Mr. Grattan, in the debate upon the
address, objected to this speech, as be-
traying gross partiality, and moved the
following amendment : —

“ To represent to Ilis Majesty, that the
most effectual method for strengtliening
the country and promoting unanimity,
was to take such measures, and to en-
act such laws, as to ensure to all Ilis
Majesty’s subjects the blessings and
privileges of the constitution, without
any distinction of religion.” The amend-
ment was seconded by Mr. W. B. Pon-
sonby.

The debate was carried on till two
o’clock in the morning with extreme heat
and virulence. Mr. Grattan’s amendment
was opposed, as unseasonable and violent,
by several of those who had been in the
habit of voting with him on all occasions ;
insomuch that the minority on the division
consisted only of 12 against 149. In the
course of this debate Lord Castlereagh
replied with great warmth to Mr Grattan ;
and Mr. Pelham spoke more at length
than he usually did. He particularly
adverted to the two topics which had
formed the principal ground of the de-
bate ; namely, the question of Catholic
Emancipation, and the disturbances of
Armagh. “As to the first, he thouglit
it very improperly brought forward at
that juncture. It was then no time to
make distinctions between Catholics and
Protestants ; no such distinction was made
by Government^

As for the disturbances in Armagh, of
course IMr. Secretary Pelham defended
the Government and the magistrates ;
and said if the Insurrection Act had
not been applied there, as in some other
counties, it was because the magistrates
had not thought the nature of the troubles
“Avould justify the application of that
very severe law.”

It Avas in this session that the Habeas
Corpus Act Avas suspended. This suspen-
sion together Avith the Insurrection and
Indemnity Acts, completed the arrange-
ments for putting out of the pale of tlie
laAv about nine-tenths of the population.

When Mr. Secretary Pelham moved,
on the 20th of October, 179G, that the
House should adjourn for about a fort-
night, Mr. Curran strongly opposed it ;
particularly upon the grounds of the ne-
cessity of putting an immediate check
upon the still continuing outrageous dis-
turbances of Armagh, Avhich surpassed in
horror everything he had ever heard or
read. He had on the first day of the
session stated the number oi families that
had become the victims of that infernal
barbarity at 700 ; it AA^as Avith great pain

he mentioned, that upon more minute in-
quiry, he found as many more must be
added to the miserable catalogue ; he Avas
in possession of evidence, ready to be
examined at their bar, and whom he hoped
they would hear, that Avould satisfy them
upon oath, that not less than 1,400 families
had been thus barbarously expelled from
their houses, and then Avere Avandering
about the neighbouring counties, saA^e
such of them as might have been mur-
dered, or burned in their cottages, or
perished in the fields or highways by
fatigue and famine, and despair ; and
that horrid scene had been transacted,
and Avas still continuing in the open day,
in the heart of the kingdom, Avithout any
effectual interference Avhatsoever.

The public testimony of Mr Curran,
which he Avould not have dared to give in
open Parliament if it could have been
contradicted, may finish the picture of
the north of Ireland in this year. There
Avere noAv several successive adjournments
until the 6th of January, 1797. In the
meantime, the French fleet had appeared
in Bantry Bay, and disappeared again,
giving rise to numberless rumours through-
out the island, and rousing sentiments of
rage and horror in one party, of hope and
joy in another, but on the whole, inten-
sifying the bitterness and vindictive
})assion of the “ Ascendency” against
Catholics and United Irishmen, Avho had
so nearly succeeded in bringing upon them
such terrible visitors. On the re-as-
sembling of Parliament, many members
brought forAvard resolutions of inquiry or
comjAlaint as to the remiss conduct of the
Government on occasion of the threatened
invasion, of Avhich it Avas well knoAvn Go-
vernment had possessed timely intelli-
gence. The reformers and emancipators
of the House showed Avhat the Castle
thought a very suspicious anxiety for the
defence of the country, Avhen they pro-
posed A'ery large additions to the armed
yeomanry of the country. The adminis-
tration did not forget that in 1782 it had
been this same alleged lack of sufficient
defence against foreign enemies Avhicli
gave occasion to the volunteering, and
that Avhen the Volunteers Avere enrolled
and armed, they very naturally acted as
if they considered England the only fo-
reign enemy they had. The Government,
therefore, Avould not suffer any measure
of general armament to pass, but assented
to a proposal of Sir John Blaquiere, for
raising an additional force of 10,060 men ;
this, hoAvever, to be in the nature of mi-
litia, officered by Government, and the
Government was to have entire control of
its organization and its personnel.

*240

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

On a subsequent night, Sir Lawrence
Parsons made another attempt, by a reso-
lution, that it was necessary to have a
permanent force for protection of the
country. The motion was opposed with
bitter violence by Mr. Secretary Pelham.
Mr. Grattan followed ; and the real nature
of the question at issue will be manifest
in this extract from his speech : — “ The
Secretary asked, who could be more in-
terested for the safety of Ireland than the
British Minister ? He would answer,
Ireland herself. To refer to the British
Minister the safety of that country Avas
tlie most sottish folh" ; it Avas false and
unparliamentary to say that the House
had no right to recommend a measure
such as the honourable baronet proposed.
Had it been a j)roposition to increase the
regular standing army, it might perhaps
have been a little irregular ; but AA’hen an
increase of 10,000 to the standing army
Avas proposed by a right honourable
baronet the other night, it Avas not con-
sidered as an affront. Now another
honourable baronet comes forAvard to
give an army five fold as many, and five
fold as cheap, and administration are
affronted. Why ? Because that army
Avas of the people. If the doctrine the
right honourable member advanced AA'ere
true, and that the duty of Parliament
now Arere become nothing more than
merely to A'ote taxes, and echo three
millions, Avhen the Minister said three
millions are A\*anted, then, indeed, actum
est de parliainento ; a reform of the repre-
sentation Avas become then more than eA^er
necessary.’*

It AA'as easy for the Ministers to perceive
AA'hat Avas in the minds of iMr. Grattan and
his friends : to have another popular army i
strong enough at once to preser\"e the
public peace and to protect the Consti-
tution of the country ; and Ministers
Avere fully resolved that neither of these
things should be done : the public peace
Avas to be destroyed by insurrection, in
order that the Constitution should be
destroyed by legislatiA^e “ union.” On
this motion of bir LaAvrence Parsons
there was a dvision at four o’clock in the
morning — 25 voted for it, 125 against it.

In December, January, and February,
of this Avinter, many districts in the coun-
ties of Ulster Avere proclaimed ” under
the Insurrection Act ; and more than the
horrors of martial law Avere noAv raging
iliere. The anxiety and excitement of
the country had re-acted disastrously
upon trade and general business interests ;
and in the midst of this came a sudden
order from the Privy Council to the
Governor and Company of the Bank of i

Ireland to suspend specie payments. The
manifest object of this measure Avas still
further to aggravate that “ alarm of the
better classes,” Avhich is a needful and
unfailing agency of British domination in
Ireland ; and it had the desired effect.
But it also excited some attention in Eng-
land ; and Mr. Whitbread, in the English
Commons, and Lord Moira, in the Lords,
made ineffectual efforts to procure an
inquiry into the conduct of Ministers Avith
regard to Ireland. It is needless to say,
these attempts Avere vehemently resisted
by the administration, and AA'ere defeated
by A'ast majorities. British Ministers
Avantcd no inquiry ; they already knew
all ; and all Avas proceeding precisely as
they had ordered and intended. A singular
feature of this incident is, that the debates
on the state of Ireland in the English
Parliament roused the patriotic indigna-
tion of the notorious Doctor Duigenan,
then a member of the Irish Parliament
for Armagh, a doctor of the civil law and
a renegade Papist, therefore more de-
sperately vindicative against Papists, and
more abush'e of their tenets than any
Orangeman in the land. The Doctor
Avas seized AA'ith a sudden fit of Irish
patriotism ; and gave notice in the House,
on the oOth of March, that after the recess
he Avould move a resolution condematory
of such unconstitutional interferences,
and refuting the false statements made
in the other Parliament respecting Ire-
land by Lord Moira, Mr. Whitbread, and
Mr. Fox. Mr. Grattan desired him to
giA'e due notice of that motion ; as it was
his intention to demonstrate that the state-
ments Avere both true, and also constitu-
tional. But Mr. Grattan had noAv, at
length, come to perceive that labours in
that Parliament Avere utterly throAvn
aAvay. Accordingly, he determined to
secede from the body. In a speech of
his upon the state of the North, Avhere
General Lake Avas noAv dragooning the
people Avith unexampled ferocity, he pro-
tested solemnly, but most hopelessly, that
the true remedy for all the troubles lay
in a just Government and reform of
Parliament ; and speaking of the United
Irish Society : “ NotAvithstanding your
GunpoAvder Act, it has armed and in-
creased its military stores under that
Act ; notAvithstanding your Insurrection
Act, another bill to disarm, it has greatly
added to its magazines ; and notAvithstand-
ing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
Bill and General Lake’s proclamation, it
has multiplied its proselytes. I should
have asked, had I been on the Secret
Committee, Avhether the number of United
Irishmen had not increased very mucli

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

241

since General Lake’s proclamation, and
by General Lake’s proclamation. It ap-
pears, I say, from that report, that just
as your system of coercion advanced,
the United Irishmen advanced ; that the
measures you took to coerce, strength-
ened ; to disperse, collected ; to disarm,
armed ; to render them weak and odious,
made them popular and powerful ; where-
as, on the other hand, you have loaded
Parliament and Government with the
odium of an oppressive system, and with
the further odium of rejecting these
two popular topics, which you allow are
the most likely to gain the heart of the
nation, and be the beloved objects of the
people.”

Mr. Grattan closed his speech and the |
debate with these words: “We have I

offered you our measure ; you will reject '
it ; we deprecate yours ; you will per- |
severe ; having no hopes left to persuade
or dissuade, and having discharged our
duty, we shall trouble you no more, and a fter
this day shall not attend the House of Com-
mons.”— 17 Par. Deb., p. 570.

Accordingly, at the next general elec-
tion, Mr. Grattan and Lord Henry Fitz-
gerald declined to be returned for Dub-
lin. Mr. Curran, Arthur O'Connor, and
Lord Edward Fitzgerald followed the ex-
ample. There has been much discussion
upon this “ secession.” It has been urged
on the one hand, that Grattan and Curran
and Lord Henry Fitzgerald, who still ap-
pealed to the Constitution, and acknow-
ledged the existence and authority of a
British Government in Ireland, were
wrong to abandon the legal and constitu-
tional field. On the other hand, it has
been urged, that having abandoned that,
the only manly and rational course left
them was to join the United Irishmen, as
O’Connor and Lord Edward had already
done. It is hard to blame those excellent
men and true Irishmen, Grattan and
Curran. If they had joined the United
Irish Society, they would have probably
found themselves immediately in New-
gate, as O’Connor and Lord Edward
Fitzgerald soon after did, besides, they
were not Kepublicans, and abhorred
“ I^nch principles ” as earnestly as Lord
Clare himself.

When Wolfe Tone, in his French exile,
heard of the secession, his observation in
his journal is : “I see those illustrious
patriots are at last forced to bolt out of
the House of Commons, and come amongst
the people, as John Keogh advised Grattan
to do long since.” They did bolt from
the House of Commons, but did not come !
amongst the people. I

111 short, he saw now that the unhappy '

country was delivered over to its bloody
agony, and that he could do no more than
look on in silence. General Lake had en-
tered upon his mission with zeal ; many
seizures of concealed arms and ammuni-
tion were made. In the execution of these
orders, some barbarous outrages were com-
mitted by the military which tended to
inflame and exasperate the minds of the
people, which were already too highly in-
flamed. Not only some women and chil-
dren had been murdered, but the houses
of some respectable persons were pillaged
and demolished upon the bare suspicion of
their being United Irishmen.

The newspaper called the Morning Star,
in Belfast, after it had been sacked a few
months earlier, had been refitted, and was
again carried on with spirit, exposing the
evil designs of the Ministers, and publish-
ing boldly essays and letters in favour of
civil liberty. It was, of course, necessary
now that the paper should be suppressed
altogether. Neilson, its first editor, and
the two Simms, its proprietors, were all
now in Newgate prison, though not ac-
cused of any offence whatever. The news-
paper was required by military authority
to insert an article reflecting on the loyalty
of the people of Belfast ; the article did
not appear as ordered. The next moni-
ing, a detachment of soldiers marched out
of the barracks, attacked the printing-
office, and utterly demolished every part
of it, breaking the presses, scattering the
types, and seizing the books. Thus dis-
appeared the Morning Star, and it never
rose again. There was, after that, no-
body daring enough to even record or
allude to, far less to denounce, the hid-
eous atrocities which the policy of the
Castle required to be perpetrated.

It was now the avowed opinion of Go-
vernment that the treason was, in the
course of the winter of 1796 and the spring
of 1797, too deeply rooted to yield to the
remedy of the law, even where it was put
in force by the magistrates with activity.
Such an assumption was prominently cal-
culated to open the door to the strongest
measures, and the general command given
to the civil and military officers, by pro-
clamation, to use the exertions of their
utmost force, and to oppose with their
full power all such as should resist them
in the execution of their duty, which was
to search for and seize concealed arms,
admitted of a latitude of power, not very
likely to be temperately regulated by raw
troops let in upon a countr}' denounced
rebellious and devoted to military rigour,
as a necessary substitute for the inefficacy
of the municipal law. A regiment of
Welsh cavalry, called the “Ancient Bri-

Q

242

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

tons,” commanded by Sir Watkin William
Wynne, were at all times prominently
conspicuous for the rigorous execution of
any orders for devastation, destruction, or
extermination. They were marked for it
by the rebels, and in the course of the re-
bellion they were cut to pieces almost to
a man.

That proclamation above mentioned,
which was published on the 17th of May,
was sent to Lord Carhampton, with a let-
ter from Mr. Pelham on the 18th of May,
in consequence of Avhich his lordship im-
mediately published the following order ;
— “ In obedience to the order of the Lord-
Lieutenant in Council, it is the Cora-
mander-in-Chief’s commands that the
military do act, without waiting for direc-
tions from the civil magistrates, in dis-
persing any tumultuous or unlawful as-
semblies of persons threatening the peace
of the realm, and the safety of the lives
and properties of His Majesty’s loyal sub-
jects wheresoever collected.”

This proclamation, together with the
laws then in existence and the known
Avishes of the authorities, left everything
at the discretion of the soldiery ; they
Avere to determine Avhat Avas an unlaAvful
assembly; and Ave shall find that they
often treated as such families asleep in
their own beds at night, provided there
Avere any pretext for suspecting the exist-
ence of weapons in the house, or any in-
formation of an United Irish oath haA'ing
been administered there.

Of the outrages done in the course of
this year, 1797, it is noAv impossible to
procure anything like a complete account.
Yet a few examples, Avell authenticated,
must be given to show hoAv martial laAv
Avorked in those days. Doctor JMadden,
the indefatigable Collector of Documents
relating to the period, has republished the
pamphlet before cited, called, “ View of
the Present State of Ireland.” It Avas
published the same year in London, be-
cause no printer in Ireland could have
dared to print it. The statements of this
pamphlet have never been contradicted ;
and old James Hope, one of the last
survivors of the United Irishmen, and
a person of intelligence and integrity,
thus indorsed it to Dr. Madden : — “This
pamphlet contains more truth than all
the volumes I have seen Avritten on the
events of 1797 and 1798.” We select a
feAV extracts : —

“ In the month of IMay last, a party of
the Essex Pencibles, accompaned by the
Enniskillen Yeomen Infantry, commanded
by their First-Lieutenant, marched to the
house of a Mr. Potter, a very respectable
farmer, Avho lived Avithin five miles of |

Enniskillen, in the County of Fermanagh..
On their arrival, they demanded Mr,.
Potter, saying they Avere ordered to arrest
him, as he Avas charged Avith being an
United Irishman. His Avife, with much
firmness, replied, ‘that to be an United
Irishman Avas an honour, not a disgrace ;
that her husband had gone from home the
preceding day on business, and had not
yet returned.’ They assured her that if
he did not surrender himself in three hours
they Avould burn his house. Mrs. Potter
answered, ‘ that she did not knoAv exactly
Avhere he then Avas, but, if she did knoAv,
she believed it Avould be impossible to
have him home in so short a time' In less
than three hours they set fire to the
house, Avhich Avas a very neat one, only
about fiAm years built ; the servants
brought out some beds and other A'alu-
able articles, in the hopes of preseiwing
them, but the military dashed all back
into the flames. The house and property
to the amount of six or seven hundred
pounds were consumed, and Mrs. Potter,
with seA^en children, one of them not a
month old, Avere turned out, at the hour
of midnight, into the fields.

“In June, 1797, a party of the Ancient
Britons (a fencible regiment), commanded
by Sir Watkin William Wynne,) Avere
ordered to examine the house of Mr. Rice,
an innkeeper in the tOAAm of CoolaA’il,
County of Armagh, for arms ; but on
making very diligent search, none could
be found. There Avere some country
people drinking in the house, and dis-
coursing in their native language; the
soldiers damned their eternal Irish souls,
said they Avere speaking treason, and in-
stantly fell on them Avith their SAvords,
and mained several desperately. Miss
Rice Avas so badly Avounded that her life
Avas despaired of, and her father escaped
Avith much difficulty, after having receh^ed
many cuts from the sabres of these as-
sassins.

“In June, some persons had been re-
freshing themselves at an inn in NeAV-
townards, County of DoAvn, kept by a Mr.
M Cormick, and it Avas alleged that they
Avere overheard uttering Avords termed
seditious. MUormick Avas afterAA'ards
called on to give information Avho they
Avere ; he denied having any knoAvledge of
them, observing that many people might
come into his house AAdiom he did not knoAv,
and for Avhom he could not be accountable.
He was taken into custody, and next day
his house and extensive property Avere
reduced to ashes. The house of Dr.
Jackson Avas torn doAA-n on suspicion of his
being an United Irishman; and many other
I houses in that tOAvn and barony Avere

IIISTOKY OF IRELAND,

243

destroyed, or otherwise demolished, by
English Fencibles, on similar pretexts.

‘‘On the 22d of June, Mr. Joseph
Clotney, of Ballinahinch, was committed
to the Military Barracks, Belfast, and his
house, furniture, and books, worth three
thousand pounds, destroyed ; also the
valuable house of Mr. Armstrong, of that
place, Avas totally demolished.”

“ A party of fencibles, then quartered in
Enniskillen, were ordered, under the
command of a captain and adjutant,
accompanied by the First Fermanagh
Yeomanry, into an adjoining county to
search for arms. About two o’clock in
the morning they arrived at the house of
one Durnian, a farmer, which, without
any previous intimation whatever, they
broke open, and on entering it, one of the
fencibles fired his musket through the
roof of the house ; an officer instantly
discharged his pistol into a bed where two
young men were lying, and wounded them
both. One of them, the onhj child of Dur-
nian. rose Avith great difficulty, and on mak-
ing this effort, faint with the loss of blood,
afencible stabbed him through the boAvels.
His distracted mother ran to support him,
but in a feAv moments she sank upon the
floor, covered Avith the blood Avhich issued
from the side of her unfortunate son ; by
this time the other young man had got on
his knees to implore mercy, declaring
most solemnl}' that they had not been
guilty of any crime, Avhen another feneible
deliberately knelt down, levelled his musket
at him, and Avas just going to fire,
when a sergeant of yeomanry rushed in,
seized, and prevented his committing the
horrid deed. There were persons who
smiled at the humanity of the sergeant.

Information had been lodged that a
house near NeAvry contained concealed
arms. A party of the Ancient Britons
repaired to the house, but not finding the
object of their search, they set it on fire.
The peasantry of the neighbourhood came
running from all sides to extinguish the
flames, belicA'ing the fire to have been
accidental— it was the first military one
in that part of the country. As they
came up they Avere attacked in all direc-
tions, and cut doAvn by the fencibles ;
thirty Avere killed, among Avhom Avere a
Avoman and tAvo children. An old man
(about seventy years), seeing the dreadful
slaughter of his neighbours and friends,
fled for safety to some adjacent rocks ;
he Avas pursued, and, though on his
knees imploring mercy, a brutal Welsh-
man cut off his head at a bknv.

“ I have stated incontrovertible truths.
Months Avould be insufficient to enumer-
ate all the acts of wanton cruelty Avhich

Avere inflicted on the inhabitants of Ire-
land from the 1st day of April to the 24th
day of July, 1797.”

The same authority narrates this fact
also, but Avithout date : “ The house of
Mr. Bernard Crossan, of the parish of
Mullanabrack, Avas attacked by Orange-
men, in consequence of being a reputed
Catholic. His son prevented them from
entering by the front door, upon which
they broke in at the back part of the
house, and, firing on the inhabitants,
killed Mr. Crossan, his son, and daughter.
Mr Hugh M‘Fay, of the parish of Seagoe,
had his house likewise attacked on the
same pretence, himself wounded, his fur-
niture destroyed, and his Avife barbaro-usly
used.”

The same Avriter mentions that, “ infor-
mation having been lodged against a few
individuals living in the village of Kilrea,
in the County of Derry, for being United
Irishmen, a party of the military were
ordered to apprehend them ; the men
avoided the capture, and about three
o’clock in the morning, a reverend magis-
trate, accompanied by a clergyman and a
body of soldiers came to the village, and
not finding the men, Avho had avoided
capture, they burned all their hoAises,
except four, Avhich could not be burned
Avithout endangering the whole village.
These they gutted, and consumed their
contents.”

It must be remembered that these
scenes, Avhich are but a few samples,
all took place in the year 1797, and
before there Avas any insurrection in
Ireland ; and all in tAAm or three coun-
ties of one province. But if there Avas
no insurrection, it Avas fully resolved at
the Castle to provoke one. A remarkable
saying used a short time before by a re-
markable man, and a very fit partizan of
the Irish Government, leaves but little
doubt upon the real aims and wishes of
the “Ascendency.” The man Avas John
Claudius Beresford, of the noble house of
Tyrone and Waterford, and one of the
most ferocious tyrants in the Avorld— we
shall hear of him again at the “ Riding
School.” On the 30th of March, in this
year, in his place in Parliament, he thus
corrects, or rather confirms, the saying
attributed to him : —

“ Mr. J. C. Beresford begged to correct
a misstatement Avhich had gone abroad
of Avhat he had said in a former debate
on the Insurrection bill. It had been
stated in a country paper, and from
thence copied into those of Ilublin, that
he had expressed a Avish ‘ that the AAdiole
of the North of Ireland Avere in open re-
bellion, that the Government might cut

244

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

them off.’ Tliis had been very assiduousiy
circulated, to the detriment of his char-
acter ; and was, he could confidently say,
a falsehood. What he had said was,
‘ that there were certain parts of the
North of Ireland in a state of concealed
rebellion ; and that he wished those places
were rather in a state of open rebellion,
that the Government might see the rebel-
lion, and crush it.’ ”

It was observed that after the late
extensive spread of the United Irish So-
ciety in the North, “ Defenderism” had
in a great measure ceased there. Many
thousands of those who had been De-
fenders joined their Presbyterian neigh-
bours in the “ Union.” This, in fact,
was the great object of the Union, and
the warmest hope of its jiromoters. The
United Irish Societies of Ulster alone,
according to a return seized by Govern-
ment in Belfast, counted, at least, on
paper, one hundred thousand men in the
month of April. They became more con-
fident in their strength ; and having
resolved to defer any general rising until
the following year, they would not be
goaded into a premature outbreak. Dur-
ing the Summer Assizes, although there
were very numerous convictions for the
usual class of offences attributed to Uni-
ted Irishmen and Defenders (for it was
never thought of to prosecute Orange-
men, the only criminals), yet there were
also several acquittals, greatly to the satis-
faction of the United Irish, and to the
dismay of the Government. This cer-
tainly arose from the greater difficulty
which the sheriffs now had in packing
sure juries, not being able to tell now who
might, or might not, be United Irishmen.
Mr. Curran defended many cases on the
North-east Circuit, amongst which may
be mentioned those Avhich occurred in
Armagh. There were in the jail of that
town twenty eight persons accused of this
species of alleged offence, of whom, how-
ever, two trials only were brought to trial.
In the former, a suborned soldier, who
was brought forward to prosecute one
Dogherty, was, upon Dogherty’s acquittal,
put into the dock in his place to abide his
trial for perjury. The Grand Jury found
bills against him, and he remained in cus-
tody to abide his trial.

fi'he only other trial was that of the
King against Hanlon and Nogher, charged
with contemptuously, maliciously, and
feloniously tendering to the prosecutor an
unlawful oath or engagement to become
one of an unlawful, wicked, and seditious
society, called United Irishmen.

Cne witness only was i)roduced in sup-
port of this indictment, a soldier of the

Twenty-fourth Light Dragoons of the
name of Fisher, who swore to the admin-
istration of an oath, “ to be united in
brotherhood to pull down the head clergy
and half-pay officers.” He, upon his cross-
examination, said that the obligation had
been shown and read to him in a small
book of four leaves, which he had read,
and would know again. The Constitu-
tion of the United Irishmen was then put
into his hands by the defendant’s counsel,
and he admitted the test contained in it
to be the same that he had taken.

On the part of the prisoners, A. T.
Stewart, Esq., of Acton, was examined
and cross-examined by the Crown. The
sum of his testimony was, that this So-
ciety had made rapid progress through
the people of all religions, ranks, and
classes ; that before its introduction into
that country the most horrible religious
persecutions existed, attended with mur-
der and extirpation ; that since its intro-
duction these atrocities had subsided, as
far as he could learn. He admitted he
had heard of murders laid to their charge,
but could hardly believe such charges, as
he conceived them incompatible with any
thing he ever could learn of the principles
or consequences of their institution.

The jailor was also examined, who said
that fewer persons had been sent to him
upon charges of wrecking and robbing
houses, or of murder, than before, and
that he understood the religious parties
began to agree better together and to
fight less.

There was no other material evidence,
Mr. Curran spoke an hour and three-
quarters in defence of the United Irish-
men. That he was delighted to find,
after so many of them had been im-
mured in dungeons, without trial, that
at length the subject had come fairly
before the world — and that, instead of
being a system of organized treason and
murder, it proved to be a great bond of
national union, founded upon the most
acknowledged principle of law, and every
sacred obligation due to our country and
Creator.

Mr. Baron George gave his opinion de-
cidedly, that the obligation was, under
the act of Parliament, illegal. The jury
Avithdrew, and acquited the prisoners, and
thus ended the Assizes of Armagh,

fifiie “ Union” continued to recruit its
numbers in the North ; but Avith still
greater secrecy, and the country remain-
ing perfectly tranquil, notAA'ithstanding
the cruel outrages of magistrates and
military, trade somc\Adiat revived, and
most people seemed to be returning peace-
fully to their ordinary pursuits. In short,

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

245

the United Irish of Ulster were resolved
not to rise until they should be at least as-
sured of the co-operation of the other three
provinces, if not of aid from France. A
report of the “ Secret Committee ” of the
Commons, made this summer, congratu-
lated the country upon this apparent de-
cline in the treasonable spirit. Such, the
Committee stated, had been the beneficial
consequences of the “ measures adopted in
the year 1797” — that is, of the rigours of
martial law, searches for arms, burnings
of houses, and slaughters of women and
children. We have already seen, how-
ever, that the greater tranquillity and
good order of the North arose precisely
from the spread of this very “ treason ”
which the Committee pretended to regard
as being itself the only disturbance. This
Committee goes on to report, that the
leaders of the treason, apprehensive lest
the enemy might be discouraged from any
further plan of invasion by the loyal dis-
position manifested throughout Munster
and Connaught on their former attempt,
determined to direct all their exertions to
the propagation of the system in those
provinces which had hitherto been but
partially infected. With this view, emis-
saries were sent into the South and West
in great numbers, of whose success in
forming new societies and administering
the oaths of the Union there were, in the
course of some few months, but too evi-
dent proofs in the introduction of the
same disturbances and enormities in Mun-
ster with which the northern province had
been so severely visited.

In May, 1797, although numbers had
been sworn both in Munster and Leinster,
the strength of the organization, exclusive
of Ulster, lay chiefly in the metropolis,
and in the neighbouring counties of Dub-
lin, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, and the
King’s County. It Avas very observable
that the counties in which Defenderism
had prevailed easily became converts to
the new doctrines ; and in the summer of
1797 the usual concomitants of this species
of treason, namely, the plundering houses
of arms, the fabrication of pikes, and the
murder of those avIio did not join their
party, began to appear in the midland
counties.

“In order to engage the peasantry in
the southern counties, particularly in the
counties of Waterford and Cork, the more
eagerly in their cause, the United Irish-
men found it expedient in urging their
general principles, to dwell ivith peculiar
energy on the supposed oppressiveness of
tithes, which had been the pretext for the
old White Boys’ insurrections. And it is
observable that, in addition to the acts of

violence usually resorted to by the party
for the furtherance of their purposes, the
ancient practice of burning the corn and
houghing the cattle of those against whom
their resentment was directed was revived,
and very generally practised in those
counties.

“ With a view to excite the resentment
of the Catholics, and to turn that resent-
ment to the purposes of the party, fabri-
cated and false tests were represented as
having been taken to exterminate Catholics,
and were industriously disseminated by
the emissaries of the treason throughout
the provinces of Leinster, Munster, and
Connaught. Keports were frequently cir-
culated amongst the ignorant of the Ca-
tholic persuasion that large bodies of men
were coming to put them to death. This
fabrication, however extravagant and ab-
surd, was one among the many ivicked
means by which the deluded peasantry
were engaged the more rapidly and deeply
in the treason.” *

So far the Committee ; and this docu-
ment is but one of many examples of
legislative slander at the time, and of his-
tories Avritten by “ loyal men ” since.
The report classes under the same head
of “ enormities ” the fabrication of pikes
and the murder of those Avho did not join
their party It is true the United Irish-
men did everywhere get pikes forged, but
utterly untrue that they did in any in-
stance murder anj'- one for not joining
them. As for “ burning the corn and
houghing the cattle of those against Avhom
their resentment Avas directed,” it is true
that the “ supposed oppressiveness of
tithes” and of church rates had for many
years been the occasion of such acts of
outrage against tithe proctors, &c., but
quite untrue that outrages of this kind,
or any other kind, increased Avhen the
United Irish Societies spread into the
midland and southern counties. On the
contrary, they diminished. We have al-
ready seen the strong testimony to this
effect in the North ; and it may be laid
down as universally true, that the Irish
people, on the eve of an insurrection or
in any violent political excitement, are
always free from crime to a most ex-
emplary extent ; Avhich is always con-
sidered an alarming symptom by the
authorities.

“ The good effects of the United Irish
system in the commencement,” says Miles
Byrne, t “ Avere soon felt and seen through-

* riowden.

t The excellent, chivalrous Miles Byrne, who died
only in 1852, a Chef-dt-BataiUon in the French ser-
vice, was one of the first United Irishmen in Wex-
ford County. Ills ilemoirs, edited by his Widow, and

246

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

out the Counties of ^yexford, Carlow, and
"Wicklow, which were the parts of the
country I knew best. It gave the Jirst
alarm to the Government; they suspected
something extraordinary was going on,
finding that disputes, fighting at fairs
and other places of public meeting, had
completely ceased. The magistrates soon
perceived this change, as they were now
seldom called on to grant summons or
warrants to settle disputes. Drunkenness
ceased also ; for an United Irishman to
be found drunk was unknown for many
months. . . . Such was the sanctity

of our cause.”* Even Mr. Plowden,
though an enemy of the United Irishmen,
and ready enough to call them miscreants
for their “treason,” is obliged to vindicate
them from the charges of encouraging or
favouring other kinds of crime. But it
is true, that if it be an “ enormity ” to
“fabricate pikes,” they were guilty of
that atrocity.

So much, it is right to say, in vindica-
tion of as pure, gallant, and self-sacri-
ficing a political party as ever appeared
in any country under the sun.

As for the last-cited statement in the
Committee’s report, it Avas most accu-
rately true that large bodies of men Avere
at that moment “ coming to put them
(the Catholics) to death.” TAA^elve Eng-
lish and Scottish militia regiments, be-
sides an immense force of the regular
army, Avere coming, or already come, for
that express purpose ; Avhich purpose Avas
alsj carried into effect u])on a veiy great
scale. And it Avas most natural, therefore,
that those Catholics should be urged to
unite for their own defence Avith those of
their countrymen Avho Avere objects of the
same conspiracy ; namely, the Society of
United Irishmen.

When this monstrous report Avas pre-
sented in the House of Commons, there
was naturally some debate. Mr. Fletcher

pul'lisliecl in New York and in Paris in 18G3, form
one of the most valuable documents for the history
of his time, and the insurrection in Wexford.

* The question at one time much agitated —
whether the United Irishmen, or any of them, did
or did not theoretically hold tyrannicide, that is,
political assassination, to be lawful, is nothing to the
])urpose; it is enough to know they never practised
it, and their leaders professed their abhorrence of it.
Singular to say, the only United Irishman who ever
by any writing of his, gave even a pretext for such
an imputation, was the gentle poet who sings “ The
Loves of the Angels,” and “ The last Rose of Sum-
mer.” A letter of his, when a student in Trinity
College, signed SopAister, contains some rhetoric of
that sort ; and resolutions written by him and offered
in one of tiie U.I. Clubs in College, were the chief
occasion of Lord Clare’s celebrated Visitation to
the University ; but Lord Clare himself admitted
that the resolution advising tyranuiade had been
rejected.

said, that if coercive measures were to be
pursued, the whole country must be co-
erced, for the spirit of insurrection had
pervaded CA'ery part of it.

Mr. M. Beresford ordered the clerk to
take down these Avords, and the gallery
AA'as instantly cleared. "When strangers
were again admitted, the debate on the
address still continued, and in the course
of it M. J. C. Beresford thought himself
called on to defend the Secret Committee
against an assertion which had fallen from
Mr. Fletcher in the course of his speech.
The assertion Avas, in substance, that he
feared the people Avould be led to look on
the report of the Committee as fabricated
rather to justify the past measures of
GoA'ernment than to state facts.

One statement, hoAvever, in the report
Avas true — that during this summer the
United Irish system did strike Augorous
roots in all the Counties of Leinster, ex-
cept, perhaps, Kilkenny, It has been
affirmed that Wexford, Avhich soon made
the most formidable figure in the insurrec-
tion, had so feAv United Irishmen Avithin
its bounds up to the end of the year 1797,
as not to be counted at all in the official
returns of the organized counties in Feb-
ruary ; and it is probable that as the
peasantry of Wexford Avere comparatively
comfortable and thrifty, and lived on good
terms AAuth their landlords, there Avas less
disposition to rush into insurrectionary
organizations at first. Yet Miles Byrne,
AA'ho was himself sworn in an United
Irishman in the summer of 1797, tells us :
“ Before a month had elapsed, almost
every one had taken the test.” He adds :
“ We soon organized parochial and baron-
ial meetings, and named delegates to
correspond Avith the county members
Robert Graham, of Corcannon, a cousin
my mother’s, Avas named to represent the
county at the meeting to be held in Dub-
lin at Oliver Bond’s.” Whatever may
IniA'e been the case in Wexford, it js cer-
tain that Kildare, CarloAv, IMeath, and
Dublin, AA'ere in the course of the summer
completely organized. IMiles Byrne says :
“ Kothing could exceed the readiness and
good Avill of the United Irishmen to com-
ply with the instructions they recewed to
procure arms, ammunition, &c., notAvith-
standing the difficulties and perils they'
underAvent in purchasing those articles.
Pikes Avere easily had at this time, for al-
most every blacksmith Avas a United
Irishman. The pike-blades Avere soon
had, but it Avas more difficult to procure
poles for them ; and the cutting down of
young ash trees for that purpose aAvoke
great attention and caused great suspicion
of the object in aucav.” It is certain, hoAv-

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

247

€ver, that the county of Wexford neither
suffered so much, nor was so ripe for in-
surrection, as many other counties, until
after the 1st of April, 1798, when Lord
Castlereagh’s “ well - timed measures ”
were taken. In the meantime Lord Ed-
ward Fitzgerald and the other leaders
were eagerly and impatiently awaiting
news of approaching succours from
France ; keeping the people as quiet as
possible, and letting them prepare their
arms and steel their hearts, in full view
of the corpses blackening upon many a
gibbet, and heads impaled on spikes over
many a gaol doorway, for the crime of
swearing to promote the union of Irish-
men, in order to obtain a full and fair
representation of the people,* and de-
liverance from their savage oppressors.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1797—1798.

Wolfe Tone's Negotiations in France and Holland. —
Lewins. — Expedition of Dutch Government Des-
tined for Ireland. — Tone at the Texel. — His Jour-
nal.— Tone’s uneasiness about Admitting Foreign
Dominion over Ireland. — MacNeven’s Memoir. —
Discussion as to Proper Point for a Landing. —
Tone on Board the Vryheid. — Adverse Winds. —
Rage and Impatience of Tone. — Disastrous Fate
of the Batavian Expedition. — Caraperdown.

The great French armament, destined
for the liberation of Ireland, which had
looked in at Lantry Bay, had returned to
Brest, without so much loss by the bad
weather as might have been expected,
and without having met a single British
ship-of-war. The frigate Fraternit(^,
•carrying General Hoche and the Admiral
Moraiid de Galles, arrived safely at La

* It is right to bear in mind throughout, that the
•original test of the United Irish Society, which bound
them to unite to procure fair representation of all
the Irish people in Parliament, was changed in 179-5
into an engagement to unite for the purpose of ob-
taining a fair representation of all the people —
dropping the words ''■ in Parliament.” From that
time, separation and a Republican Government be-
came the fixed objects of the principal leaders, but
not the avowed ones till a little later, when, at the
conclusion of every meeting, the chairman was
obliged to inform the members of each society,
“they had undertaken no light matter,” and he
was directed to ask every delegate present what
were his view's and his understanding of those of his
society, and each individual was expected to reply,

“ a Republican Government and a separation from
England.” — Pieces of Irish History. Madden.

All this was, of course, as well known to the
Government as to the members; so that it cannot
in candour be said, that the U. I. w’ere treated as
criminals for the mere fact of uniting — it was for
uniting to destroy British dominion in Ireland, and
•erect a republic in its place.

Rochelle a fortnight after. Hoche was
appointed to the command of the Army
of the Sarabre and Meuse ; and Theobald
Wolfe Tone went with him, attached to
his personal staff. A great mutual re-
gard seems to have sprung up between
the young General and his gallant Aide;
and the latter, who had by no means
given up the project of a French liberat-
ing invasion of Ireland, always cherished
the hope of seeing Hoche appointed to the
chief command. On the 10th of March,
he writes to his wife : ‘‘ This very day the
Executive Directory has ratified the
nomination of General Hoche, and I am,
to all intents and purposes, Adjutant-
General, destined for the Army of tSambre
and iVIeuse.”

In the end of May, after a short
stay with his family, who had arrived
in France, we find him at Cologne,
at the headquarters of that army. In
the meantime, Mr. John Edward Lew-
ins, already mentioned as an agent
of the United Irishmen, had arrived
in France, empowered to treat for another
expedition, and to negotiate a loan. When
Lewins arrived in Holland, then called
the ” Batavian Republic,” 'one of the re-
publics dependent upon France, and at
war with England, he found the Govern-
ment very well disposed to essay this bold
enterprise of a descent upon Ireland, and
to risk their whole navy and army in the
effort. An extract from Tone’s journal
will now afford the best insight into the
state of this negotiation. While Avith
General Hoche, at his Quartier General,
at Friedberg, he writes, under date of
June 12th, 1797 • —

“ This evening the General called me
into the garden and told me he had some
good news for me. He then asked, ‘ Did
I know one Lewins?’ I answered I did,
perfectly well, and had a high opinion of
his talents and patriotism, ‘Well,’ said
he, ‘ he is at Neuwied, waiting to see you ;
you must set off to-morrow morning ;
when you join him, you must go together
to Treves, and wait for further orders.’
The next morning I set off, and, on the
llth, in the evening reached —

‘■‘■ June lith, Neuwied; where I found
Lewins waiting for me. I cannot ex-
press the unspeakable satisfaction I felt
at seeing him. I gave him a full account
of all my labours, and of everything that
had happened since I have been in France,
and he informed me, in return, of every-
thing of consequence relating to Ireland,
and especially to my friends now in jeop-
ardy there.

“June nth, T/-eyes; Avhere we arrived on
the 17th. What is most material is, that

248

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

he is sent here by the Executive Com-
mittee of the Unked People of Ireland,
to solicit, on their part, the assistance in
troops, arms, and money, necessary to
enable them to take the field, and assert
their liberty ; the organization of the
people is complete, and nothing is wanting
but the point d’appui. His instructions
are to apply to Prance, Holland, and Spain.
At Hamburgh, where he passed almost two
months, he met a Senor Nava, an officer
of rank in the Spanish navy, sent thither
by the Prince of Peace, on some mission of
consequence ; he opened himself to Nava,
who wrote off, in consequence, to his court,
and received an answer, general, it is true,
but in the highest degree favourable ;
a circumstance which augurs well is,
that ill forty days from the date of
Nava’s letter he received the answer,
which is less time than he ever knew a
courier to arrive in, and shows the ear-
nestness of the Spanish Minister. Lewins’
instructions are to demand of Spain
^500,000 sterling, and 30.000 stand of
arras. At Treves, on the 19th, Dalton,
the General’s Aide-de-Camp, came ex-
press Avith orders for us to return to —
‘■'June 21st, Cohkntz ; Avhere Ave arriA'ed
on the 21st, and met General Hoche. He
told us that, in consequence of the arrival
of LeAvins, he had sent off Simons, one of
his Adjutant -Generals, avIio Avas of our
late expedition, in order to press the
Executive Directory and IMinister of the
Marine ; that he had also sent copies of
all the necessary papers, including espe-
cially tb.ose lately prepared by LeAvins,
AA'ith his OAvn obserA^ations, enforcing
them in the strongest manner ; that he
had just receiA'ed the answers of all par-
ties, Avhich Avere as favourable as Ave could
desire ; but that the Minister of the Ma-
rine Avas absolutely for making the expe-
dition on a grand scale, for Avhich two
months, at the A'ery least, Avould still be
necessar}’ ; to Avhich I, knoAving Brest of
old, and that tAvo months, in the language
of the Marine, meant four at least, if not
fi\'e or six, remarked the necessity of an
immediate exertion in order to profit by
the state of mutiny and absolute disor-
ganization in Avhich the English navy is
at this moment, in Avhich Lewins heartily
concurred ; and Ave both obserA'ed that it
was not a strong military force that Ave
Avanted at this moment, but arms and
ammunition, Avith troops sufficient to
serve as a noyau de armee, and protect the
people in their first assembling ; adding,
that 5,U00 men sent now, Avhen the thing
was feasible, Avould be far better than
25,000 in three months, Avhen perhaps Ave
might find ourselves again blocked up in

Brest Harbour; and I besought the Gene-
ral to remember that the mutiny aboard
the English fleet would most certainly be
soon quelled, so that there Avas not a
moment to lose ; that if Ave Avere lucky
enough to arriA^e in Ireland before that
took place, I looked upon it as morally
certain that, by proper means, Ave might
gain over the seamen, who have already
spoken of steering the fleet into the
Irish harbour, and so settle the business,
perhaps Avithout striking a bloAA'. We both
pressed these and such other arguments
as occured, in the best manner AA'e Avere
able ; to AA-hich General Hoche replied, he
saAv eA^erything precisely in the same light
Ave did, and that he Avould act accordingly,
and press the Directory and Minister of
the Marine in the strongest manner. He-
shoAved LeAvins Simons’ letter, Avhich con-
tained the assurance of the Directory
‘ that they Avould make no peace Avith
England Avherein the interests of Ireland
should not be fully discussed agreeably to
the Avishes of the people of that country.’
This is a very strong declaration, and has
most probably been produced by a demand
made by LeAvins in his memorial, ‘ that
the French Government should make it
an indispensable condition of peace, that
all the British troops should be AvithdraAvn
from Ireland, and the people left at full
liberty to declare Avhether they Avished to
continue the connection Avith England or
not.’ General Ploche then told us not to
be discouraged by the arriA'al of a British
negotiator, for that the Directory Avere
determined to make no peace but on con-
ditions AA'hich Avould jAut it out of the
poAver of England longer to arrogate to
herself the commerce of the Avorld, and
dictate her laAvs to all the maritime-
poAvers. He added that preparations Avere
making also in Holland for an expedition,
the particulars of Avhich he Avould com-
municate to us in tAvo or three days, and,
in the meantime, desired us to attend him
to—

“ June 2Uh, Cologne ; for Avhich place Ave
set off ; arrh^ed the 24th,

“ June 2oth. — At nine o’clock at night
the General sent us a letter from General
Daendels, Commander-in-Chief of the
Army of the Batavian Republic, acquaint-
ing him that everything Avas in the
greatest forAvardness, and Avould be ready
in a very fcAv days ; that the army and
the naAy Avere in the best possible spirits;
that the Committee for Foreign Affairs
(the Directory per interim of the Batavian
Republic) desired most earnestly to see
him Avithout loss of time, in order to
to make the definite arrangements ; and
especially they prayed him to bring Avith

IIISTORV Ui^ 1K1^.1.AND.

240

him the deputy of the people of Ireland,
which Daendels repeated two or three
times in his letter. In consequence of
this, I waited on the General, whom I
found in his bed in the Court Imperiale,
and received his orders to set off with
Lewins without loss of time, and attend
him at —

“ June 21 th^ the Ilague ; where we arrived
accordinjrly, having travelled day and
night, in the evening we -went to the
Comedie, where we met the General in a
sort of public incognito ; that is to say,
he had combed the powder out of his hair,
and Avas in a plain regimental frock.
After the play, we followed him to his
lodgings at the Lion d’or, where he gave
us a full detail of Avhat was preparing in
Holland. He began by telling us that
the Dutch Governor-General Daendels
and Admiral Dewinter Avere sincerely
actuated by a desire to effectuate some-
thing striking to rescue their country
from that state of oblivion and decadence
into which it had fallen ; that by the most
indefatigable exertions on their part, they
had got together, at the Texel, sixteen
sail of the line, and eight or ten frigates,
all ready for sea, and in the highest con-
dition , that they intended to embark
15,000 men, the whole of their national
troops, 3000 stand of arms, 80 pieces of
artillery, and money for their pay, and
subsistence for three months ; that he
had the best opinion of the sincerity of
all parties, and of the courage and con-
duct of the General and Admiral, but
that here Avas the difficulty : The French
Government had demanded that at least
5000 French troops, the elite of the ar-
my, should be embarked, instead of a
like number of Dutch ; in Avhieh case,
if the demand Avas acceded to, he Avould
himself take the command of the united
army, and set out for the Texel directly ;
hut that the Dutch Government made
great difficulties, alleging a variety of
reasons, of Avhich some Avere good ; that
they said the French troops would never
submit to the discipline of the Dutch
naAw, and that, in that case, they could
not pretend to enforce it on their own,
without making unjust distinctions, and
giving a reasonable ground for jealousy
and discontent to their army ; ‘ but the fact
is,’ said Hoche, ‘ that the Committee,
Daendels, and Dewinter, are anxious that
the BataA'ian Republic should have the
whole glory of the expedition, if it succeeds;
they feel that their country has been forgot-
ten in Europe, and they are risking every-
thing, even to their last stake— for if this I
fails they are ruined — in order to restore I
the national character. The demand of the i

French Government is noAV before the
Committee ; if it is acceded to, I will go
myself, and at all events I Avill present
you both to the Committee ; and Ave Avill
probably then settle the matter defini-
tively.’ Both LeAvins and I noAv found
ourselves in a considerable difficulty.
On the one side, it was an object of
the greatest importance to have iloeho
and his 5000 grenadiers ; on the other, it
A\"as most unreasonable to propose any-
thing which could hurt the feelings of the
Dutch people, at a moment Avhen they
were making unexampled exertions in our
favour, and risking, as Hoche himself
saiil, their last ship and last shilling to
emancipate us. I cursed and SAvore like
a dragoon ; it AA^ent to my very heart’s
blood and midriff to give up the General
and our brave lads, 5000 of Avhom I
Avould prefer to any 10.000 in Europe ; on
the other hand, I could not but see that
the Dutch were perfectly reasonable in
the desire to have the whole reputation of
an affair prepared and arranged entirely
at their expense, and at such an expense.
I did not know what to say. Lewins,
hoAA^ever, extricated himself and me Avith
considerable address. After stating very
Avell our difficulty, he asked Hoche Avhe-
ther he thought that Daendels Avould
seiwe under his orders, and, if he refused,
Avhat effect that might have on the Bata-
vian troops ? I Avill never forget the
magnanimity of Hoche on this occasion.
He said he believed Daendels Avould not,
and therefore that the next morning he
Avould AvithdraAv the demand Avith regard
to the Freneh troops, and leave the Dutch
Goverment at perfect liberty to act as
they thought proper. When it is con-
sidered that Hoche has a devouring pas-
sion for fame ; that his great object, on
Avhich he has endeavoured to establish his
reputation, is the destruction of the poAver
of England ; that he has, for two years, in
a great degree, devoted himself to our
business, and made the greatest exertions,
including our memorable expedition, to
emancipate us ; that he sees, at last, the
business likely to be accomplished by an-
other, and, of course, all the glory he had
promised to himself ravished from him;
Avhen, in addition to all this, it is con-
sidered that he could, by a Avord’s speak-
ing, prevent the possibility of that riA^al’s
moving one step, and find, at the same
time, plausible reasons sufficient to justify
his OAvn conduct, I confess his renouncing
the situation Avhich he might command is
an effort of very great virtue. It is true
he is doing exactly what an honest man
and a good citizen ought to do ; he is pre-
ferring the interests of his country to his

250

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

own private views — that, however, does
not prevent my regarding his conduct in
this instance with great admiration, and
I shall never forget it. This important
difficulty being removed, after a good deal
of general discourse on our business, we
parted late, perfectly satisfied with each
other, and having fixed to wait on the
Committee to-morrow in the forenoon.
All reflections made, the present arrange-
ment, if it has its dark, has its bright
sides also, of which more hereafter.

‘‘ June 28. — This morning at ten, Lewins
and I went with General Iloche to the
Committee for Foreign Affairs, which we
found sitting. There were eight or nine
members, of whom I do not know all the
names, together with General Daendels.
Those whose names I learned were citi-
zens Hahn (who seemed to have great in-
fluence among them), Bekker, Van Ley-
den, and Gras veldt. General Iloche be-
gan by stating extremely well the history
of our affairs since he had interested him-
self in them ; he pressed, in the strongest
manner that we couid wish, the advan-
tages to be reaped from the emancipation
of Ireland, the almost certainty of suc-
cess if the attempt were once made, and
the necessity of attempting it, if at all,
immediately. It was citizen Hahn who
replied to him. He said he was heartily
glad to find the measure sanctioned by so
high an opinion as that of General Iloche;
that originally the object of the Dutch
Government was to have invaded Eng-
land in order to have operated a diversion
in favour of tlie French army, which it was
hoped would have been in Ireland; that cir-
cumstances being totally changed in that
regard, they had yielded to the wishes of
the French Government, and resolved to go
into Ireland ; that, for this purpose, tin y
had made the greatest exertions, and had
now at the Texel an armament of 16 sail
of the line, 10 frigates, 15,000 troops in
the best condition, 80 pieces of artillery,
and pay for the whole three months ; but
that a difficulty had been raised within a
few days, in consequence of a requisition
of the Minister of Marine, Truget, who
wished to have 5000 French troops,
instead of so many Dutch, to be disem-
barked in consequence. That this was a
measure of extreme risk, inasmuch as the
discipline of tlie Dutch navy was very
severe, and such as the French troops
would probably not submit to; that, in
that case, they could not pretend to en-
force it witli regard to their own troops,
the consequence of which would be a
relaxation of all discipline. This was
precisely what General Iloche told us
last night. He immediately replied that,

such being the case, he would take on
himself to withdraw tlie Minister of
Marine, and satisfy the Directory as to
the justice of their observations ; and
that he hoped, all difficulty on that head
being removed, they would press the em-
barkation without a moment’s delay. It
was easy to see the most lively satisfaction
on all their faces at this declaration of
General Hoche, which certainly does him
the greatest honour. General Daendels,
especially, was beyond measure delighted.
They told us then that they hoped all
would be ready in a fortnight, and Hahn
observed, at tlie same time, that, as there
was an English squadron which appeared
almost every day at the mouth of the
Texel, it was very much to be desired
that the Brest fleet should, if possible,
put to sea, in order to draw off at least a
part of the British fleet, because, from
the position of the Texel, the Dutch fleet
was liable to be attacked in detail, in
sailing out of the port ; and even if they
beat the enemy, it would not be possible
to proceed, as they must return to refit.
To this General Hoche replied, that the
French fleet could not, he understood, be
ready before two months, which put it
out of the question ; and as to the ne-
cessity of returning to refit, he observed
that, during the last war, the British and
French fleets had often fought, both in
the East and West Indies, and kept the
seas after ; all that was necessary being
to have on board the necessary articles
of rechange ; besides, it was certainly the
business of the Dutch fleet to avoid an
action by all possible means. General
Daendels observed that Admiral Dewinter
desired nothing better than to measure
himself with the enemy, but we all, that
is to say, General Hoche, Lewins, and
myself, cried out against it, his only busi-
ness being to bring his convoy safe to its
destination. A member of the committee,
I believe it was Van Leyden, then asked
us, supposing everything succeeded to our
wish, what was the definite object of the
Irish people. To which we replied cate-
gorically, that it was to throw off the
yoke of England, break forever the con-
nection now existing with that country,
and constitute ourselves a free and inde-
pendent people. They all expressed their
satisfaction at this reply, and Van Leyden
observed that he had travelled through
Ireland, and to judge from the luxury of
the rich, and extreme misery of the poor,
no country in Europe had so crying a
necessity for a revolution. To which
Lewins and I replied, as is most religi-
ously the truth, that one great motive of
our conduct in this business, was the con-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

251

vic.tion of the wretched state of our peas-
nntry, and the determination, if possible,
to amend it. The political object of our
visit beinst now nearly ascertained, Hahn,
in the name of the Committee, observed
that he hoped either Lewins or I would
he of the expedition. To which Hoche
replied, ‘ that I was ready to go,’ and he
made the offer, on my part, in a manner
peculiarly agreeable to my feelings. It
was then fixed that I should set off for
the army of Sambre et Meuse for my
trunk, and especially for my papers, and
that Lewins should renmin at the Hague,
at the orders of the Committee, until my
return, which might be seven or eight
days. The meeting then broke up. We
■could not possibly desire to find greater
attention to us, personally, or, which was
far more important, greater zeal and
anxiety to forward this expedition, in
which the Dutch Government has thrown
itself ‘ a coj'ps perdu." They venture no
less than the whole of their army and
navy. As Hoche expressed it, ‘ they are
like a man stripped to his breeches, who
has one shilling left, which he throws in
the lottery, in the hope of being enabled
to buy a coat.”

The mutations of history are sometimes
strange. Here, in 1797, we find the Dutch
nation preparing for a grand national
effort to liberate and redeem the very
same people whom a century before it
had so powerfully contributed, Avith the
Prince of Orange and its “ Dutch Blues,”
to hurl prostrate under the feet of this
very England Avhich the Dutch llepublic
was now so eager to overthrow.

It deserves to be noticed, in justice to
the Irish agents both in Holland and in
France, that they never contemplated
bringing an overwhelming force to Ire-
land, such as might subdue the country to
hold it in a state of subjection to France,
like the Ligurian or Cisalpine Kepublic.
The “ Secret Committee,” already so often
cited, Avhich had under examination
Messrs. Emmet, MacNeven, and O’Con-
nor, admit this fact. “It appeared to
the Committee that the Executive of the
Union, though desirous of obtaining as-
sistance in men, arms, and money, yet
were averse to a greater force being sent
than might enable them to subvert the
Government and retain the poAver of the
country in their OAvn hands ; but that the
French showed a decided disinclination at
ail times to send any force to Ireland, ex-
cept such as from its magnitude might
not only giA^e them the hopes of conquer-
ing the kingdom, but of retaining it after-
wards as a French conquest, and of sub-
jecting it to all the plunder and oppres-

sions which other nations, subdued or de-
ceived by that nation, had experienced.”
In Tone’s journal, under date of 1st of
July, occurs a passage showing hoAv ear-
nestly that true Irishman deprecated a
French conquest of his country : “ I then
took occasion to speak on a subject Avhicli
had Aveighed A'^ery much upon my mind —
I mean the degree of influence Avhich the
French might be disposed to arrogate to
themselves in Ireland, and which I had
great reason to fear would be greater than
we might choose to allow them. In the
Gazette of that day, there was a procla-
mation of Buonaparte’s, addressed to the
Government of Genoa, Avhich I thought
most grossly improper and indecent as
touching on the indispensable rights of
the people. I read the most obnoxious
passages to Hoche, and observed that,
if Buonaparte commanded in Ireland,
and were to publish there so indiscreet a
proclamation, it Avould have a most ruin-
ous effect ; that in Italy such dictation
might pass, but never in Ii’eland, where
we understood our rights too well to sub-
mit to it. Hoche answered me, ‘ I under-
stand you. but you may be at ease in that
respect ; B uonaparte has been my scholar,
but he shall never be my master.’ ”

Before proceeding to narrate the for-
tunes of this second grand expedition
bound for Ireland, it Aviil be aa'bII to con-
sider the views of those Irishmen who had
studied the subject Avith regard to a point
then extremely interesting, and Avhich
may again become interesting in the
course of human events — namely, the
most advisable or convenient harbours of
Ireland for purposes of a landing hostile
to England. This question is treated at
length in a memoir, which Avas, during
this same summer, intrusted to Dr. Mac-
Neven, and Avas by him carried over to
France, in order that no such blunder
miglit again be made as the approach
to the desolate mountainous coasts of
Bear and Bantry. This memoir, singular
to relate, fell into the hands of the British
Government; but certainly not through
any treachery on the part of Dr. Mac-
Neven, who Avas a most excellent man ;
but O’Connor, Emmet, and MacNeven
tell us, in their memoirs, that on their
examination before the Secret Committee
of the Lords the next year, they Avere
astonished beyond measure to see the
very original of that memoir lying on the
table — so perfect was the spy system of
England, both at home and abroad, main-
tained by an enormous expenditure of
Secret Service money.”

The account which the Secret Com-
mittee has given us of that memoir is as

252

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

follows; — The next communication of
consequence was in June, 1797, when an
accredited person Avent from hence to
communicate with the French Directory
by their desire ; he Avent by Hamburg,
Avhere he saA\" the French Minister, Avho
had made some difficulty about granting
a passport, and demanded a memorial,
Avhich Avas Avritten by the accredited
person, and giA’en to the French Minister
under the impression that the passport
Avas not to be granted.

The memoir Avas Avritten in Englisli, and
contained the objects of his mission ac-
cording to the instructions Avhich he had
receiA’ed from the ExecutiA’e. It began
by stating that the appearance of the
French in Bantry Bay, had encouraged
the least confident of the Irish in the hope
of throAA'ing off the yoke of England AAdth
the assistance of France ; that the CA^ent
of that expedition had proA'ed the facility
of iiiA-ading Ireland ; that in the eA’ent of
a second expedition, if the object were to
take Cork, Oyster HaA'en AA'ould be the
best place of debarkation ; that the per-
son Avho had been before accredited Avas
instructed to point out Oyster IlaA'en as
the best place of debarkation ; and it
stated the precautions A\diich had been
taken, by throAA'ing up Avorks at Bantry,
Fermoy, and MalloAV. It further stated,
that the system of the United Irishmen
had made a rapid progress in the County
of Cork, and that Bandon Avas become a
second Belfast ; that the system had made
great progress in other counties, and that
the people AverenoAv Avell inclined to assist
the French ; that 150,000 United Irishmen
Avere organized and enrolled in Ulster, a
great part of them regimented, and one-
third ready to march out of the proA'ince.
It detailed the number of the King’s forces
in Ulster, and their stations ; recommended
LoughsAAnlly as a place of debarkation in
the Korth, and stated that the peojfie in
the peninsula of Donegal AA-ould join the
French. It stated, also, the strength of
the garrison in Londonderry, and that
one regiment Avhich made a part of it aa’us
supposed to be disaffected. It mentioned
Killybegs also as a good place of debark-
ation, and stated that the Counties of
Tyrone, Fermanagh, and i\Ionaghan, Avere
amongst the best affected to the cause.
In case of a landing at Killybegs, it
recommended a diversion in Sligo, and
stated, that a force of 10,000 United
Irishmen might be collected to fall upon
Enniskillen, Avhich commanded the pass
of Lough Erne ; that it Avas easy to enter
the Bay of Galway, but A'ery difficult to
get out of it ; that the Counties of Louth.
Armagh, Westmeath, King’s County, and

City of Dublin, Avere the best organized ;
that the Catholic priests had ceased to be
alarmed at the calumnies Avhich had been
propagated of French irreligion, and were
Avell affected to the cause ; that some of
them had rendered great service in propa-
gating Avith discreet zeal the system of
the Union. It declared that the people
of Ireland had a livelj' sense of gratitude
to France for the part Avhich she took,
and also to Spain for the interest she took
in the affairs of Ireland. It engaged on
the part of the National Directory, to
reimburse the expenses of France in the
expedition Avhich had failed, and of another
to be undertaken. The number of troops
demanded Avas a force not exceeding
10,000, and not less than 5000 men. Ic
stated that a brigade of English artillery
had been already sent over, and that a
large body of troops Avould probably be
sent if Ireland were attacked. A con-
siderable quantity of artillery and am-
munition, Avith a large staff, and a body
of engineers, and as many Irish officers
as possible, Avhose fidelity they Avere
assured of Avere demanded as necessary
to accompany the expedition. A recom-
I mendation Avas given to separate the Irish
seamen avIio Avere prisoners of Avar from
the British, supposing they would be
ready to join in an expedition to liberate
their country. It further recommended
a proclamation to be published by the
French General, on his arrit'al there, that
the French came as allies to deliA'er the
country, not to conquer it ; it also recom-
mended to the Directory to make the
independence of Ireland an indispensable
condition of the treaty of peace then
pending; and stated that a proceeding
so authentic could not be disguised or
misrepresented, and Avould A'ery much
encourage the people of Ireland. It con-
tained also an assurance, that the Irish
Militia Avould join the French if they
landed in considerable force.*

The difficulty in the Avay of thcBataA'ian
expedition being removed, by the generous
self-abnegation of General Iloche (though
his heart Avas set upon this service), great
acth’ity Avas exerted to make everything
ready. Tone Avas to accompany the
Dutch force, Avith the same rank Avhich
he held in the French. What greatly
increased the hopes and spirits of Tone
and his allies, Avas the famous “ Mutiny

* The topographical researches into the capabili-
ties of harbours for invasion, must be much facili-
tated by the many excellent maps of Ireland pub-
lished Avithin these last few years; some of which
also afford a very perfect idea of the nature of the
country inland. At the period spoken of in the text,
the best map of Ireland was, perhaps, that of Beau-
mont, a very useless one for strategical purposes.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

253

of the Nore,” on board the English fleet,
off the mouth of the Thames, which
threatened for a few weeks to disable
completely the naval power of England.
The mutiny, however, was with some
difficulty quelled by some sanguinary
punishments, and also by increasing the
pay of the seamen; so that the the Brit-
ish Channel Fleet was ready for service
again, as the Dutch soon found out to their
cost. On the 4th of July, we find Wolfe
Tone at the Hague, ready to undertake
his duties. We copy the following ex-
tracts from Tone’s Journal ; —

July A:th. — Instantly on my arrival I
Avaited on General Daendels, whom I
found on the point of setting out for the
Texel. He read the letter, and told me
everything should be settled with regard
to my rank, and that I should receive two
months pay in advance, to equip me for
the campaign. His reception of me was
extremely friendly. I staid with Lewins,
at the Hague, three or four days, Avhilst
my regimentals, «ScC., were making up,
and at length, all being ready, we parted,
lie setting off for Paris, to join General
Hoche, and I for the Texel, to join
General Daendels.

^'July Sth. — Arrived early in the morn-
ing at the Texel, and Avent immediately
on board the Admiral’s ship, the Vryheid,
of 74 guns, a superb vessel. Found
General Daendels aboard, A\ffio presented
me to Admiral Dewinter, Avho commands
the expedition. I am exceedingly
pleased Avith both one and the other;
there is a frankness and candour in their
manners Avhich is highly interesting.

“ lOth. — I have been boating about

the fleet, and aboard several of the
vessels ; they are in A^ery fine condition,
incomparably better than the fieet at
Brest, and 1 learn from all hands that
the best possible spirit reigns in both
soldiers and sailors. Admiral Duncan,
Avho commands the English fleet off the
Texel, sent in yesterday an officer Avith
a flag of truce, apparently Avith a let-
ter, but in fact to reconnoitre our force.
De win ter AA^as even with him ; for he de-
tained his messenger, and sent back the
answer by an officer of his own, Avith in-
structions to bring back an exact account
of the force of the enemy.

“ Ju/y llth. — This day our flag of truce
is returned, and the English officer re-
leased. Duncan’s fleet is of eleven sail
of the line, of which three are three-
deckers.”

When both fleet and army were quite
ready, by some fatality similar to that
Avhich delays d the Brest fleet before, the
wind set in steadily in an adverse direc-

tion, and so continued day after day, Aveek
after Aveek.* During the Avhole of the
tAvo months of July and August the de-
parture Avas postponed ; the supplies put
on board the fleet were nearly exhausted,
and it Avas knoAvn that Admiral Duncan,
who cruised outside, had been reinforced
considerably. Changes of plan Avere pro-
posed, and England or Scotland Avas to be
the object of the attempt, not Ireland.
When General Daendels mentioned these
new projects to Wolfe Tone, the latter
became seriously alarmed. Hs says in his
journal : “ These are, most certainly, very
strong reasons, and, unfortunately, the
wind gives them every hour fresh Aveight.
I ansAvered, that I did not see at present
any solid objection to propose to his sys-
tem , and that all I had to say, was, that
if the Batavian Kepublic sent but a cor-
poral’s guard to Ireland, I Avas ready to
make one. So here is our expedition in a
hopeful way. It is most terrible. TAvice,
within nine months, has England been
saA'ed by the Avind. It seems as if the very
elements had conspired to perpetuate our
slavery, and protect the insolence and op-
pression of our tyrants. What can I do
at this moment ? Nothing. The people of
Ireland will noAv lose all spirit and confi-
dence in themselves and their chiefs,
and God only knoAvs whether, if Ave Avere
even able to effectuate a landing with
3000 men, they might act Avith courage
and decision.”

In the interval of waiting at the Texel,
two additional agents of the Irish Union
made their appearance in Holland. These
were Tennant and Lowry ; Avith instruc-
tions to make sure, if possible, of some
effectual aid, either from France or
Holland. They i)ut themselves at once
into communication Avith Tone and LeAV-
ins. Nothing seemed immediately possi-
ble in that direction, at least until after
this Dutch armament should be definitely
giA^en up , and the Batavian authorities
AA'ere very reluctant to give it up. Gene-
ral Daendels charged Tone Avith a mis
sion to the headquarters of the army of
the Sambre and Meuse, in order to confer

* It. is painful to see how Tone's fiery spirit, al-
ready irritated by disapointment, chafed at tliis
cruel delay. July 17th, he says in his diary: “I
hope the wind a\ ill not play us a trick. It is terribly
foul this eveninpr. Hang it, and damn it for me ! I
am in a rage. Avhich is truly astonishing, and can do
nothing iO help myself. Well! Avell!

Ji/Iy 18th. — The wind is as foul as possible this
morning; it cannot be Avorse. Hell! Hell! Hell!
Allah! Allah! Allah! I am in a most devouring
rage!

'‘■Jul!/ Idtft. — Wind foul still. Hornble ! Horrible !
Admiral DeAvinter and I endeavour to pass away the
time, playing the flute, Avhich he does very Avell ;
Ave have some good duets, and that is some relief.”

254

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

with General Hoche ; and when he arrived
he found Hoche dj'ing. He writes : —

“ September 18th and Vdth. — My fears
with regard to General Hoche were but
too well founded. He died this morning
at four o’clock. His lungs seemed to me
quite gone. This most unfortunate event
lias so confounded and distressed me that
I know not what to think, nor what will
be the consequences. Wrote to my wife
and to General Daendels instantly.”

Tone evidently believed that Dewinter’s
Dutch fleet would never sail at all ;
therefore, after the death of Hoche, he
obtained leave to go to Paris, where he
was to meet his wife and children.

It is impossible to over-estimate the
importance of the loss which the Irish
cause in France sustained in the death of
General Hoche. He had thoroughly made
that cause his own, through his warm
admiration for his Irish aide, as well as
from his settled conviction, formed on
military principles, that to strike Eng-
land in Ireland is the surest and easiest
Avay to destroy her power. It is now-
known that Napoleon Buonaparte, then
the rival of Hoche, came afterwards
to entertain strongly this opinion con-
cerning Ireland, although, unfortunately,
he w-as not then duly impressed with its
importance. At St. Helena, he said of
Hoche, that he was one of the first of
French generals;” and that if he had
landed in Ireland he would have succeed-
ed in the great enterprise. And if he
had but lived another year, his influence
might have availed to direct upon the
coast of Ireland that fine fleet and army
which made the unavailing and disastrous
invasion of Egypt.

While Tone seems to have abandoned
ever}' hope of decisive action on the part
of the Batavian Kepublic, a sudden reso-
lution was taken at the Hague. In the
beginning of October, the British Com-
mander quitted his station, and went to
Yarmouth Koads to refit. A peremptory
order was despatched by the Dutch Govern-
ment to Admiral Dew'inter to put to sea.
On the morning of the 11th of October,
Duncan, having made great haste, came
in view' of the Dutch fleet near the coast
of Holland, off a place called Camper-
down. The two fleets were nearly equal
in number of ships, but the English were
much superior in weight of metal. De-
Avinter, seeing a battle inevitable, engaged
w'ith the utmost gallantry. After a bloody
fight, which the Dutch sustained w'ith an
intrepidity approaching desperation. De-
winter’s ship struck a sinking W'reck.
Ten Dutch ships of the line and two
frigates were captured ; Duncan became

Lord CamperdoAvn ; and there was an
end of Holland as a great naval pow'er.

Thus there w'as, and continued to be, a
strange fatality dooming the hopes of Ire-
land in foreign aid to a series of painful
disappointments. There w'ere, after this,
two more expeditions, on a small scale,
both French, and both intended to aid the
Irish insurrection. As for the “ Army
of England,” w'hich began to be formed
in this A'ery month of October, it is need-
less to enter into the detail of that opera-
tion, as it Avas really never intended for
England at all, still less for Ireland.
Napoleon Buonaparte Avas made Com-
mander-in-Chief. While there Avas ap-
parently busy preparation in the Channel
ports of France, Wolfe Tone Avas in the
highest spirits ; and had several intervieAvs
Avith the conqueror of Italy, Avho seemed
bent at last upon the grand enterprise of
going straight to London, promised Tone
that he should be employed in the expedi-
tion, and requested him to make out a list
of the leading Irish refugees then in
Paris, Avho “ Avould all,” he said, “ be
undoubtedly employed.” So passed the
winter and the spring. Two passages
from Tone’s journal Avill tell all that is
needful to be told of the Armee d'Anyle-
terre : —

“ Maij 19/^. — I do not knoAv Avhat to
think of our expedition. It is certain
that the Avhole left Aving of the Army of
England is at this moment in full mfarch
back to the Rhine ; Buonaparte is God
knoAvs Avhere, and the clouds seem thick-
ening more and more in Germany, where
I have no doubt Pitt is moA’ing heaven
and hell to embroil matters, and divert
the storm Avhich Avas almost ready to fall
on his head.

“ May 2ith and 2oth.—lt is certain that
Buonaparte is at Toulon, and embarked
since the I4th ; his speech, as I suspected,
is not as it Avas given in the last journals.
The genuine one I read to-day, and there
are two sentences in it Avhich puzzle me
completely. In the first, at the beginning
of the address, he tells the troops that
they form a Aving of the Army of Eng-
land ; in the second, tOAvards the end, he
reminds them that they have the glory of
the French name to sustain in countries
and seas the most distant. What does
that mean ? Is he going, after all, to
India? Will he make a short cut to
London by Avay of Calcutta? I begin
foully to suspect it.”

In fact, the expedition to Egypt Avas
already at sea ; Tone remained attached
to that portion of the “ Army of Eng-
land” Avhich Avas still quartered in the
North of France, and passed his time be-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

255

tween Rouen and Havre ; Lewins con-
tinued to represent the United Irishmen
at Paris with great tact and honesty.
But in the mefTntime Lord Castlereagh
had already, by his “ judicious measures,”
caused the premature explosion of the
insurrection in Ireland ; and the island
was now ringing with the combat of
Oulart Hill and the storm of Enniscorthy.

CHAPTER XXXII.

1798.

Spies. — Secret Service IMoney. — Press Prosecution.
— “ Remember Orr !" — Account of Orr. — Curran’s
Speech. — His Description of Informers. — Arts of
Government. — Sowing' Dissensions. — Forged
Assassination List. — “Union” Declines. — Ad-
dresses of “Loyalty.” — Maynooth Grant J^n-
larged. — Catholic Bishops “Loyal” — Forcing a
“ Premature Explosion." — Camden and Carhamp-
ton. — Outrages on the People, to Force Insurrec-
tion.— Testimony of Lord IMoira. — Inquiry De-
manded in Parliament. — Repulsed and Defeated
by Clare and Castlereagh. — Insolence and Un-
limited Power of Ministers. — General Abercr’ombie
Resigns. — Kemarkable General Order. — Pelham
Quits Ireland. — Castlereagh’s Secretary. — The
Hessians’ Free Quarters. — The Ancient Britons.
— Proclamation of Martial Law. — Grattan's
Picture of the Times. — Horrible Atrocities in
Wexford. — Massacres. — The Orangemen. — Their
Address of Loyalty. — All these Outrages before
any Insurrection.

During all the time of these negotiations
in France, the British Government was
most intimately acquainted with every-
thing the United Irishmen were doing or
contemplating, by means of great multi-
tudes of spies ; many, or most of these
spies being themselves sworn members of
the United Irish Society ; whose business
was not only to watch and report, but
also to urge on and promote the prepara-
tions for insurrection, and who were duly
paid at the Castle out of the “ Secret
Service Money.”* The system of not

* Dr. Madden has procured and published the
accounts of this important brancli of the public
service for 17i)7-S. These spies were of all grades
of society, and their functions were very various.
Some, like Reynolds and Armstrong, men of educa-
tion and position, were to associate with the leaders,
and carry all their secrets to the Castle ; others,
like James O’Biien, were to foment treasons in
public houses, and swear aw-ay at assizes the
lives of those who trusted them. The record is a
very curious one ; and it may be some satisfaction
to n.s, that if our country has been always bought
and sold for money, we can at least examine and
check the accounts, and estimate with considerable
accuracy the money value of a traitor (or “ loyal
man”), according to his talents and opportunities.
For seventy years past, it has cost the treasury
heavily to purchase " loyal men” in Ireland, from
Reynolds down to Nagle.

merely paying informers for information,
but hiring them beforehand to join illegal
societies, and there recommend and urgC“
forward the boldest and most illegal
counsels, in order to betray their trusting
confederates, is a system peculiar to the
British Government in Ireland ; and not
parallelled in atrocity and baseness by
anything known to us in the functions
of a French or Austrian police. During
the whole year 1797 this “battalion
of testimony” was in a state of high
organization and efficiency ; and greatly
aided in causing the insurrection to burst
out at the very day and hour when the
Castle wished for it. It would be an end-
less task to recount all the oppressions
which in the latter part of this year
goaded the people at last to seek a
remedy in desperate resistance ; but the
case of Orr is too remarkable and notori-
ous to be passed over.

A prosecution was instituted against
the Press newspaper in 1798, for seditious
libel on Lord Camden’s Government, con-
tained in certain letters which appeared
in that paper in the latter part of 1797.
The subject matter of the libel in the
Press, signed Marcus (for the publication
of which the printer was prosecuted by
the Government), was the refusal of Lord
Camden to extend mercy to a person of
the name of William Orr, of respecta-
bility, and remarkable for his popularity,
who had been capitally convicted at Car-
rickfergus of administering the oath of
the United Irishmen’s Society, and was
the first person who had been so con-
victed. Poems were written, sermons
were preached ; after-dinner speeches,
and after supper still stronger speeches
were made, of no ordinary vehemence,
about the fate of Orr and the conduct of
Lord Camden, which certainly, in the
peculiar circumstances of this case, was
bad, or rather stupidly base and odiously
unjust.

The scribes of the United Irishmen
wrote up the memory of the man whom
Camden had allowed to be executed with
a full knowledge of the foul means taken
to obtain a conviction, officially conveyed
to him by persons every way Avorthy of
credit and of undoubted loyalty.

The evident object of the efforts to
make this cry, “ liememher Orr,"’ stir up
the people to rebellion, cannot be mis-
taken—that object was to single out an
individual case of suffering in the cause
of the Union, for the sympathy of the
nation, and to turn that sympathy to the
account of the cause. Orr’s case pre-
sented to the people of Ireland, at that
period, a feiv extraordinary features of

256

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

iniquity and of injustice. He was a
noted, active, and popular country mem-
ber of the society of United Irishmen.
He was executed on account of the noto-
riety of that circumstance, not on account
of the sufficiency of the evidence or the
justice of the conviction that was obtained
against him ; for the crown witness,
AVheatly, immediately after the trial,
acknowledged that he had perjured him-
self ; and some of the jury came forward
likewise and admitted that they were
drunk when they gave their verdict ; and
these facts, duly deposed to and attested,
were laid before the viceroy, Lord Cam-
den, by Sir John Macartney, the magis-
trate who had caused Orr to be arrested,
and who, to his honour be it told, when
he found the practices that had been re-
sorted to, used every effort, though fruit-
lessly, to move Lord Camden to save the
prisoner.

William Orr, of Ferranshane, in the
county of Antrim, was charged with
administering the United Irishman’s oath,
in his own house, to a soldier of the name
of Wheatly. He was the first person
indicted under the act which made that
offence a capital felony (36 Geo. III.)
His father was a small farmer, in com-
fortable circumstances, and the proprietor
of a bleach-green. James Hope, who was
intimately acquainted with all the cir-
cumstances of the case, informed Dr.
Madden, “ that William Orr was not
actually the person who administered the
oath to the soldier. The person who ad-
ministered the oath was Wm. M‘Keever,
a delegate from the city of Derry to the
Provincial Committee, who afterwards
made his escape to America.”

In a letter of Miss M‘Cracken, dated
27th of September, 1797, addressed to her
brother, then in Kilmainham Jail, is
found the following reference to the re-
cent trial of Orr “ Orr’s trial has
clearly proved that there is neither jus-
tice nor mercy to be expected. Even the
greatest aristocrats here join in lamenting
his fate ; but his greatness of mind renders
him an object of envy and of admiration
rather than of compassion. I am told
that his wife is gone with a letter from
Lady Londonderry to her brother on his
behalf. . . . You will be surprised

wdien I tell you that old Archibald
Thompson, of Cushendall, was foreman
of the jury, and it is thought will lose his
senses if Mr. Orr’s sentence is carried
into execution, as he appears already quite
distracted at the idea of a person being
condemned to die through his ignorance,
as it seems he did not at all understand
the business of a juryman. Uoucevcr^ he

held out from the forenoon till six o’clock in
the morning of the day following, though,
it is said, he was beaten, and threatened
with being wrecked, and not left a sixpence
in the world, on his refusing to bring in
a verdict of guilty. Neither would they
let him taste of the supper and the drink
which was sent to the rest, and of which they
partook to such a beastly degree. It was
not, therefore, much to be wondered at,
that an infirm old man should not have
sufficient resolution to hold out against
such treatment.

(Signed) “ Mary M‘Cracken.”

Orr was defended by Curran and Samp-
son. The judges before whom he was
tried were Lord Yelverton and Judge
Chamberlaine. The jury retired at six
in the evening to consider their verdict.
They sat up, deliberating, all night, and
returned into court at six the following
morning. The jury inquired if they
might find a qualified verdict as to the
prisoner’s guilt. The Judge directed
them to give a special verdict on the
general issue. They retired again, and
returned shortly with a verdict of guilty,
and a strong recommendation of the
prisoner to mercy. Next day, Orr was
brought up for judgment, when, after an
unsuccessful motion in arrest of judgment
chiefly on the grounds of the drunkeness
of the jury, which Judge Chamberlaine
would not admit of being made “ the
foundation of any motion to the Court,”
Yelverton pronounced sentence of death,
“ in a voice scarcely articulate, and at the
conclusion of his address burst into tears.”
Orr said, pointing to the jury, “ That jury
has convicted me of being a felon. My
own heart tells me that their convic-
tion is a falsehood, and that I am not a
felon. If they have found me guilty
improperly, it is worse for them than for
me. I can forgive them. I wish to say
only one word more, and that is, to declare
on this awful occasion, and in the presence
of God, that the evidence against me was
grossly perjured — grossly and wickedly
perjured !”

The witness, Wheatly. made an affidavit
before a magistrate acknowledging his
having sworn falsely against Orr. Two
of the jury made depositions, setting forth
that they had been induced to give a ver-
dict contrary to their opinion, when
under the influence of liquor. Two others
made statements that they had been
menaced by the other jurors with denun-
ciations and the wrecking of their proper-
ties. if they did not comply with their
wishes.

James Orr, in the Press Newspaper of

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

25V

the 28th of October, 1797, published a
statement respecting his interference,
with a view of saving his brother’s life,
to the following effect : “ He, James Orr,
had been applied to by many gentlemen
to get his brother William to make a
confession of his guilt, as a condition on
which they would use their interest to
have his life spared. The high sheriff,
Mr. SkeflSngton, and the sovereign of
Belfast, the Rev. Mr. Bristowe, were
among the number — the former under-
taking to get the Grand Jurj? to sign a
memorial in his favour. James Orr im-
mediately went to his brother, and the
latter indignantly refused to make any
such confession, for ‘ he had not been
guilty of the crime he was charged with.’
James Orr not being able to induce him
to sign it, returned to Belfast and wrote
out a confession, similar in terms to that
required by Skeffington and Bristow^e, and
forged his brother’s name. The forged
document was then turned to the account
it was required for. A respite had been
granted ; but the weakness of the brother
was made instrumental to the death of
the prisoner. The shaken verdict of the
drunken jury, of the perjured witness,
was not suffered to preserve the prisoner.
The forged testimony of his guilt was
brought against him. The promises under
w’hich that document was obtained were
forgotten, and thus ‘ a surreptitious de-
claration,’ swindled from the fears of an
afflicted family, was made the instrument
to intercept the stream of mercy, and
counteract the report of the judge (one of
the judges, namely, Yelverton) who tried
him.” Orr was executed outside of
Carrickfergus, on the 14th of October,
1797, in his thirty-first year, solemnly
protesting his innocence of the crime laid
to his charge.

The act of James Orr might have led the
executive into error ; but William Orr
wrote a letter to Lord Camden, dated the
10th of October, plainly informing his
lordship of the forgery committed by his
brother, and that the confession imputed
to him ‘‘was base and false but stating
if mercy w'as extended to him, “he should
not fail to entertain the most dutiful sense
of gratitude for such an act of justice as
well as mercy.” On the day of the exe-
cution, the great body of the inhabitants
of Carrickfergus quitted the town, to
avoid witnessing the fate of Orr.

A person who visited Orr previously to
his trial, speaks of his personal appearance
and address as highly prepossessing. His
apparel was new and fashionable— there
was a remarkable neatness in his attire.
The only thing approaching the foppery

of patriotism was a narrow piece of
green ribbon round his neck. He was
six feet two inches in height, particularly
well made— in fact, his person was a
model of symmetry, strength and grace-
fulness. He wore his hair short and well
powdered. The expression of his coun-
tenance was frank and manly. He pos-
sessed a sound understanding, strong
affections, and a kindly disposition. In
speaking of the state of the country to
his visitor, who remarked that the Go-
vernment was disposed to act in a con-
ciliatory spirit towards the country, he
said • “ No, no ; you may depend upon it
that there is some system laid down
which has for its object murder and devasta-
tion." He added, respecting the treat-
ment of the Dissenters as well as the Ca-
tholics, “ Irishmen of every denomina-
tion must now' stand or fall together.”
Thus a variety of depositions establish-
ing the drunkenness of the jury and the
perjury of Wheatly were laid before the
Lord-Lieutenant. One deposition was of
the Rev. George Macartney, a magistrate
of the County of Antrim, respecting
Wheatly’s being brought forward by Mr.
Kemmis, and on his (Wheatly’s) coming
into court, relating to Mr. Macartney his
having seen a Dissenting clergyman of
the name of Eder, whom he had known
elsewhere, and was sure he was brought
there to invalidate his testimony. An-
other deposition was that of the clergy-
man referred to, stating that he had ac-
companied a brother clergyman, the Rev.
A. Montgomery, to visit a sick soldier,
apparently deranged, named Wheatly, a
Scotchman, who had attempted to commit
suicide ; that he confessed to Mrs. Hueys,
in whose house he then was, that he W'as
in Colonel Durham’s regiment, and had
committed a murder, which weighed
heavily upon his mind, and that he had
been instigated to give false evidence
against William Orr, of which crime he
sincerely repented. A similar deposi-
tion, before Lord O’Neil, was made by the
Rev. Mr. Montgomery. Two of the jury
made depositions respecting their drunk-
enness. Two others made statements of
the menaces that had been used by the
other jurors. But all were of no avail.
Lord Camden was deaf to all the repre-
sentations made to him. All the waters
of the ocean will not wash away the stain
his obduracy on this occasion has left on
his character. Better fifty thousand times
for his fame it were, if he had never seen
Ireland. The fate of Orr lies heavy on
the memory of Lord Camden.

The friends of Earl Camden in vain
seek to cast the responsibility of this act
R

258

HISTOFY OF TFFLAND.

on his subordinates in the Irish Govern-
ment. They say he was a passive instru-
ment in the hands of others. The pre-
rogative of mercy, however, was given to
him, and not to them. On the 26th of
October, 1797, a letter addressed to Earl
Camden appeared in the Press, signed
Marcus, ably and eloquently written, but
unquestionably libellous, commenting on
the conduct of his lordship in this case.
Marcus used these words in reference to
it : “ The death of Mr. Orr, the nation
has pronounced one of the most sanguin-
ary and savage acts that has disgraced
the laws. Let not the nation be told that
you are a passive instrument in the hands
of others. If passive you be, then is your
office a shadow indeed. If an active in-
strument, as you ought to be, you did not
perform the duty which the law required
of you. You did not exercise the prero-
gative of mercy — that mercy which tlie
law entrusted to you for the safety of the
subject. Innocent, it appears, he was. His
blood has been shed, and the precedent is
awful. . . . Feasting in your castle, in
the midst of your myrmidons and bishops,
you have little concerned yourself about
the expelled and miserable cottager, whose
dwelling at the moment of your mirth
was in flames, his wife or his daughter
suffering violence at the hands of some
commissioned ravager, his son agonizing
on the bayonet, and his helpless imanis
crying in vain for mercy. These are
lamentations that disturb not the hour of
carousal or intoxicated counsels. The
constitution has reeled to its centre — J us-
tice herself is not only blind, but drunk,
and deaf, like Test us, to the words of
soberness and truth.

“ Let the awful execution of IMr. Orr
be a lesson to all unthinking jurors, and
let them cease to flatter themselves that
any interest, recommendation of theirs
and of the presiding judge, can stop the
course of carnage which sanguinary, and,
I do not fear to say, unconstitutional,
laws have ordered to be loosed. Let them
remember that, like Macbeth, the servants
of the Crown have waded so far in blood
that they find it easier to go on than go
back.”

Einnerty was found guilty, and sen-
tenced to be imprisoned for two years, to
pay a fine of -£20, and to give security for
future good behaviour for seven years.
Mr. Curran’s speech in defence of this
printer, Einnerty, is a model of bold, im-
passioned and indignant pleading, which
has, perhaps, never been matched sine e
in a court of justice. One passage
of this great speech rises above the
immediate case of the orator’s client.

and gives a bold and true pictm'e of
the policy of the Government : — “ The
learned counsel has asserted that the
paper which he prosecutes (the Press)
is only part of a system formed to mis-
represent the state of Ireland and the
conduct of its Government. Do you
not therefore discover that his object is
to procure a verdict to sanction the Par-
liaments of both countries in refusing
all inquiry into your grievances? Let
me ask you, then, are you prepared to
say, upon your oaths, that those mea-
sures of coercion which are daily prac-
tised are absolutely necessary, and ought
to be continued? It is not upon Ein-
nerty you are sitting in judgment ; but
you are sitting in judgment upon the lives
and liberties of the inhabitants of more
than half of Ireland. You are to say
that it is a foul proceeding to condemn the
Government of Ireland ; that it is a foul
act, founded in foul motives, and origin-
ating in falsehood and sedition ; that it
is an attack upon the Government under
which the people are prosperous and
happy ; that justice is here administered
with mercy; that the statements made
in Great Britain are false— are the effu-
sions of party and of discontent ; that all
is mildness and tranquillity ; that there
are no burnings, no transportations ; that
you never travel by the light of confla-
grations ; that the jails are not crowded
month after month, from which prisoners
are taken out, not for trial, but for em-
barkation ! These are the questions upon
which, I say, you must virtually decide.

. . I tell you, therefore, gentlemen
of the jury, it is not with respect to Mr.
Orr or Mr. Einnerty that your verdict is
now sought ; you are called upon, on
your oaths, to say that the Government
is wise and merciful ; the people prosper-
ous and happy ; that military law ought
to be continued ; that the Constitution
could not with safety be restored to Ire-
land ; and that the statements of a con-
trary import by your advocates in either
country are libellous and false. I tell
you these are the questions ; and I ask
you if you can have the front to give the
expected answer in the face of a com-
munity who know the country as well as
you do. Let me ask you how you could
reconcile with such a verdict the jails,
the tenders, the gibbets, the conflagra-
tions, the murders, the proclamations
that we hear of every day in the streets,
and see every day in the country ? What
are the processions of the learned counsel
himself, circuit after circuit? Merciful
God ! what is the state of Ireland, and
where shall you find the wretched in-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

259

habitant of this land? You may find
him, perhaps, in jail, the only place of
security — I had almost said of ordinary
habitation ! If you do not find him there,
you may see him flying with his family
from the flames of his own dwelling —
lighted to his dungeon by the conflagra-
tion of his hovel ; or you may find his
bones bleaching on the green-fields of his
country ; or you may find him tossing on
the surface of the ocean, and mingling
his groans with those tempests, less savage
than his persecutors, that drift him to a
returnless distance from his family and
his home, without charge, or trial, or sen-
tence.’’

When Mr. Curran came to speak of
that part of the publication under trial,
which stated that informers were brought
forward by hopes of remuneration — “ Is
that,” he said, “ a foul assertion ? Or
will you, upon your oaths, say to the
sister country that there are no such
abominable instruments of destruction as
informers used in the state prosecutions
of Ireland ? Let me honestly ask you,
what do you feel, when in my hearing —
when in the face of this audience — you
are asked to give a verdict that every
man of us, and every man of you, know,
by the testimony of your own eyes, to be
utterly and absolutely false? I speak
not now of XYiq public proclamation for infor-
mers, with a promise of secrecy and extrava-
gant reward. I speak not of those unfor-
tunate wretches wdio have been so often
transferred from the table to the dock,
and from the dock to the pillory. I
speak of what your own eyes have seen,
day after day, during the progress of this
commission, while you attended this court
— the number of horrid miscreants who
acknowledged, upon their oaths, that they
had come from the seat of Government —
from the very chambers of the Castle
(where they had been worked upon by the
fear of deaih and hope of compensation
to give evidence against their fellows),
that the mild, the wholesome, and the
merciful councils of this Goverment are
holden over those catacombs of living
death, where the wretch that is buried a
man lies till his heart has time to fester
and dissolve, and is then dug up a witness.
Is this a picture created by a hag-ridden
fancy, or is it a fact ? Have you not
seen him, after his resurrection from that
tomb, make his appearance upon your
table, the image of life and death, and
supreme arbiter of both ? Have you not
marked, when he entered, how the stormy
wave of the multitude retired at his ap-
proach ? Have you not seen how the
human heart bowed to the awful supre-

macy of his power in the undissembled
homage of deferential horror ? How his
glance, like the lightening of heaven,
seemed to rive the body of the accused,
and mark it for the grave, while his voice
warned the devoted wretch of woe and
death — a death which no innocence can
escape, no art elude, no force resist, no
antidote prevent I There was an antidote
— a juror’s oath ; but even that adaman-
tine chain, which bound the integrity of
man to the throne of eternal justice, is
solved and molten in the breath which
issues from the mouth of the informer.
Conscience swings from her moorings ;
the appalled and affrighted juror speaks
what his soul abhors, and consults his
own safety in the surrender of the
victim —

Et quaa sibi quisque limebat,

Unius in iniseri exilium conversa tutere.

Informers are worshipped in the temple
of justice, even as the Devil has been
worshipped by pagans and savages — even
so in this wicked country is the informer
an object of judicial idolatry — even so is
he soothed by the music of human groans
—even so is he placated and incensed by
the fumes and by the blood of human
sacrifices.”

This extraordinary speech of Mr. Cur-
ran is not given here as an example of
rhetoric. In fact there is no rhetoric in
it ; his description is but a faint and pale
image of the horrible truth ; and the in-
former O’Brien was only one of that
immense “ battalion of testimony ” which
was now regularly drilled and instructed
at the Castle of Dublin. Through these
foul means the administration was kept
fully informed of the designs, the force,
and th.Q personnel of the United Irishmen;
it was also enabled, by the same means,
to make considerable progress in the
grand English policy of sowing dissen-
sions and bad feeling between Catholics
and Dissenters. On one side were the
honest, tolerant, and self-sacrificing lead-
ers of the United Irish Society endea-
vouring to heal the animosities of ages,
to make the people know and trust one
another in order to unite for the common
good of their unhappy country. On the
other was Mr. Pitt, ably seconded by
Lord Clare and by Castlereagh, and their
dreadful army of spies and secret emis-
saries, carrying all over the country
and scattering broadcast mysterious ru-
mours of intended massacres and assas-
sinations— industriously renewing all the
old stories of the “ horrors of the
Inquisition ” (which, indeed, were never
so horrible as the horrors of the
penal laws). A paper was even care-

260

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

fully circulated purporting to contain a
printed list of persons marked out for as-
sassination. Lord Moira, in his place in
the English House of Lords, produced
this document in debate, describing thus :
“ He held now in his hand a paper printed,
the contents of which were too shocking
to read ; its avowed object was to point
out innocent men, by name, to the poniard
of assassins. It loaded His Majesty with
the most opprobrious epithets, and reviled
the English nation with every term of
contumely, affirming it to be the duty of
every Irishman to wrest from the hands
of English ruffians the property which
these English ruffians had wrested from
their ancestors.”

That this pretended list was the pro-
duction of some of the Castle emissaries,
there can be no doubt. The Lord Chan-
cellor of England declared that he believed
the list to be a genuine programme of the
“horrid conspiracy” then hatching in
Ireland. Lord Moira said, in reply :
“ As to the paper to which the noble and
learned lord, and the noble Secretary had
alluded, concerning the names of persons
who were marked out for future assassi-
nation, he confessed, he suspected it to be
an invention to justify or to support the mea-
sures which had been adopted in Ireland,
and of which he had already complained.
He suspected this the more, because no
printer of a newspaper could have had it
from any authentic source, for no man
concerned in a conspiracy for assassination
would communicate the intention of him-
self and colleagues. He wished to speak
of assassins as he felt, with the greatest
indignation and abhorence ; but he must
also add, that he believed that they origi-
nated in Ireland from private malice and
revenge, and would do so from any party
that happened to be predominant, while
the present dreadful system continued.
It was not by a general system of terror
that it was to be prevented.”

It is easy to conceive, however, Avhat
fearful use could be made of all these
bold forgeries and wild rumours in the
hands of the Castle agents, to exaspe-
rate the Protestants, create “ alarm, ”
and stop the good work of Union. From
one cause or another, it is evident, that
towards the close of the year 1797, the
Union rather abated than increased. One
unequivocal symptom of its decline was
the renovation of dissension between Dis-
senters and the Catholics in the North.
Sir Ilichard Musgrave, from an anony-
mous acquaintance, reports that most of
the Presbyterians separated from the
Papists in the year 1797; some from
“principle, some because they doubted

the sincerity of persons in that order ;
and others, foreseeing that the plot must
fail and end in their destruction, took
advantage of the proclamation of the 17th
of May, and renounced their associates.
Numbers withdrew because they doubted
of success without foreign assistance.
The Presbyterians of the Counties of
Down and Antrim, where they are very
numerous, and where they are warmly
attached to the Union from pure re-
publican principles, thought they could
succeed without the Papists.”

Mr. Plowden bears nearly the same
testimony : “ Certain it is,” says he,
“ that the Northern Unionists generally
held back from this time; the Protestants
of Ulster were originally Scotch, and still
retain much of that guarded policy which
so peculiarly characterizes the inhabitants
of North Britain. Some barbarous mur-
ders in different parts of the kingdom
were committed ; but they do not appear
to have been perpetrated by members of
the Union, or persons in any manner
connected with them. By the report of
the Secret Committee, it appears that
from the summer of 1797 the disaffected
entertained no serious intention of hazard-
ing an effort independent of foreign as-
sistance, until the middle of March. Their
policy was to risk nothing so long as their
party was gaining strength. Whatever
were the immediate cause of the Union’s
falling off. we find that from the Autumn
of 1797 the lioman Catholics, first in
the North, and afterwards successively
throughout the kingdom, published ad-
dresses and resolutions expressive of
their horror of the principles of the
United Irishmen, and pledging them-
selv'es to be loyal and zealous in the de-
fence and support of the King and Consti-
tution. The northern addresses admitted
the fact, and lamented that many of
Catholic body had been seduced into the
Union, and they deprecated the attempts
which were made to create dissension
amongst persons of different religions.
This example was followed by the gene-
rality of the Dissenters. If addresses
were tests of loyalty, His Majesty had not
more loyal subjects throughout the whole
extent of the British Empire than the
Irish in the beginning of 1798. Scarcely
a parish throughout the kingdom, scarcely
a dissenting meeting-house, from which
an address of loyally was not issued,
signed bv the priest or minister of the
flock.”

The Catholic addresses of which Mr.
Plowden speaks were chiefly procured by
the influence of the bishops and liigher
clergy, who were much relied upon at

mSTORl OF IRELAND.

261

this time, as well as frequently since, to
keep the higher classes of Catholics
“ loyal ” to the English Government.
The Catholic College of Maynooth had
been incorporated by law in June, 1795,
and had been opened in the following
October for students. Thus, for the first
time. Catholic young men could be edu-
cated for the priesthood in their own
country without incurring the penalty of
death or transportation. The Parlia-
mentary grant, which had amounted to
£8000, was increased to £10,000 in
February, 1798, on motion of Mr. Secre-
tary Pelham, who undertook in this de-
bate to reply to the furious and foaming
declamation of Dr. Duigenan. This was
a great step in the way of conciliation ;
and it is further certain that members of
the Government deceived the Catholic
bishops by implied promises to complete
the emancipation at an early day. In-
deed, Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford,
in a pastoral of his this year, assures his
flock very positively : “ The Popery laws
are upon the eve of being extinguished
for ever ; and may no wicked hand ever
again attempt to divide this land, by
making religious distinctions a mask to
divide, to disturb, to oppress it.” Thus
the bishops and most of the clergy were
secured to the English party in the ap-
proaching struggle — and by the same
treacherous artifice by which they were
made generally favourable to the legisla-
tive “ Union ” two years later, namely,
by holding out the hope of speedy eman-
cipation. These hopes were disappointed ;
the promises were broken, and the Catho-
lics suffered under all their disabilities for
thirty years longer.

The strength of the United Irish So-
ciety then, as we have seen, was in the
North in a great measure broken up. In
the other provinces it was, however,
growing and strengthening, but without
occasioning either disorder or crime ,
rather, indeed, preventing all evil of that
description. This state of things began
to surprise and alarm Mr. Pitt, who found
the “ conspiracy ” becoming rather too
extensive and dangerous for his purposes ;
for a moment he felt he might possibly
get beyond his depth, and he conceived
the necessity of forcing a premature ex-
plosion, by which he might excite suf-
ficient horror throughout the country to
serve his purpose, and be able to suppress
the conspiracy in the bud, which might
be beyond his power should it arrive at
its maturity.

Individually, Lord Camden was an ex-
cellent man, and in ordinary times would
have been an acquisition to the country,

but he was made a cruel instrument in
the hands of Mr. Pitt, and seemed to have
no will of his own ; so that, although we
are assured by Sir Jonah Barrington that
he was personally and privately a most
amiable person, his name will always be
pronounced with horror and execration by
Irishmen, as the oflicial head of the Irish
Government in these dreadful years of
the reign of terror.

On a review of the state of Ireland at
that period, it must be obvious that the
design of Mr. Pitt to effect some mysteri-
ous measure in Ireland was now, through
the unaccountable conduct of the Irish
Government, beginning to develope itself.
The seeds of insurrection which had
manifested themselves in Scotland and
in England were, by the vigour and
promptitude of the British Government,
rapidly crushed ; and, by the reports of
Parliament, Lord Melville had obtained
and published prints of the different pikes
manufactured in Scotland, long before
that weapon had been manufactured by
the Irish peasantry. But in Ireland,
though it appeared from the public docu-
ments that Government had full and
accurate information of the Irish United
Societies, and that their leaders and chiefs
were well known to the British Ministry,
at the same period, and by the same
means that England and Scotland were
kept tranquil, so might have been Ire-
land.

Mr. Pitt, however, found he had tem-
porized to the extremity of prudence ;
the disaffected had not yet appeared as a
collected army, but, in his opinion never-
theless, prompt and decisive measures be-
came absolutely indispensable. The Earl
of Carhampton, Commander-in-Chief in
Ireland, first expressed his dissatisfaction
at Mr. Pitt’s inexplicable proceedings.
His Lordship had but little military ex-
perience, but he was a man of courage
and decision, ardent and obstinate ; he de-
termined, wright or wrong, to annihilate
the conspiracy. Without the consent of
the Irish Government he had commanded
the troops that, on all symptoms of in-
surrectionary movements, they should act
without waiting for the presence of any
civil power. Martial law had not then
been proclaimed. He went, therefore, a
length which could not possibly be sup-
ported ; his orders were countermanded
by the Lord-Lieutenant ; but he refused
to obey the Viceroy, under the colour
that he had no rank in the army.

Lord Carhampton found that the troops
in the garrison of Dublin were indoctrin-
ated by the United Irishmen ; he, there-
fore, withdrew them, and formed two

262

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

distinct camps on the south and north,
some miles from the capital, and thereby,
as he conceived, prevented all intercourse
of the army with the disaffected of the
metropolis. Both measures were dis-
approved of by the Lord-Lieutenant,
whom Lord Carhampton again refused
to obey.

The King’s sign manual was at length
procured, ordering him to break up his
camps and bring back the garrison ; this
he obeyed, and marched the troops into
Dublin barracks. “ He then resigned his
command, and publicly declared that some
deep and insidious scheme of the Minister
was in agitation ; for, instead of suppress-
ing, the Irish Government was obviously
disposed to excite an insurrection.

“ Mr. Pitt counted on the expertness
of the Irish Government to effect a pre-
mature explosion. Free quarters were
now ordered, to irritate the Irish popula-
tion ; slow tortures were inflicted under
the pretence of forcing confessions ; the
people were goaded and driven to mad-
ness.”*

General Abercrombie, who succeeded as
Commander-in-Chief, was not permitted
to abate these enormities, and therefore
resigned with disgust ; but not before
deliberately stating, in general orders,
that the army placed under his command,
from their state of disorganization, would
soon be much more formidable to their
friends than to their enemies ; and that
he would not countenance or admit free
quarters.

About this time occurred an episode in
the history of the United Irishmen— the
arrest and trial of Arthur O’Connor,
Coigley, and others, in England.

From the time O’Connor became a
member of the Leinster Directory of the
United Irishmen, he was the foremost
leader in their affairs. When the United
Irishmen solicited the intervention of
France in 1796, O’Connor negotiated the
treaty with the agent of the French
Directory. lie and Lord Edward had
an interview subsequently with Hoche,
and arranged the place of landing, and
consequent military operations.

In the early part of 1796, O’Connor
hatl been arrested and committed to the
Tower, “ vehemently suspected of sundry
treasons,” rather than charged with any
specific crime against the State. After
an imprisonment of six months he was
liberated. In February, 1798, he came
to England, with an intention, as it after-
Avards appeared, of proceeding to France,
in conjunction with John Binns, member

* Sir Jonah Barrington. “ Rise and Fall of the
Irisli Nation.”

of the London Corresponding Society,
James Coigley, an Irish priest, and a
person of the name of Allen. In the
latter end of February they went to Mar-
gate, intending to hire a small vessel to
convey them to France. Some circum-
stances in their conduct, however, exciting
suspicion, they were all apprehended, and
first committed prisoners to the Tower,
and afterwards to Maidstone jail. At
Maidstone they were tried by a special
commission on the 21st and 22d of May,
and all of them acquitted, except Coigley,
on whom had been found a paper, pur-
porting to be an address from “ the
Secret Committee of England to the Ex-
ecutive Directory of France.” Coigley
was condemned and executed ; and Mr.
O’Connor and Binns, after their acquit-
tal, were detained on another charge of
treason preferred against them. In the
meantime, and in consequence of the
motion of Mr. O’Donnel, an act had
passed the Irish Parliament authorising
grand juries to present any newspaper
containing seditious or libellous matter
as a nuisance ; and also authorising the
magistrates, on such presentation, to
suppress the paper, and seize and destroy
the printing materials, &c. The paper
called The Press was, therefore, sup-
pressed, and some of its principal sup-
porters taken into custody ; but no dis-
covery of importance resulted from this
transaction.

During the first three months of 1798
the outrages committed by the magis-
trates, with the aid of the troops and
yeomanry, upon the simple and defence-
less people of Leinster, became fearful
and notorious. But, painful as must be
the details of a slow and uniform agony
of a whole people, there can be no history
of Ireland in which such details do not
hold a conspicuous place. As a perfectly
authentic historical document, the speech
of the Earl of Moira, in the British House
of Peers (not one statement of which has
ever been contradicted) may be taken as
a sufficient picture of the state of the
country, even as early as the November
of 1797. Here follows an extract : — “ My
lords, I have seen in Ireland the most
absurd, as well as the most disgusting
tyranny that any nation ever groaned
under. I have been myself a witness of
it in many instances ; I have seen it prac-
tised and unchecked ; and the effects that
have resulted from it have been such as I
have stated to your lordships. I have
said that, if such a tyranny be ])ersevered
in, the consequence must inevitably be
the deepest and most universal discon-
tent, and even hatred to the English

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

263

name. 1 have seen in that country a
marked distinction made between the
English and Irish. I have seen troops
that have been sent full of this prejudice
— that every inhabitant in that kingdom
is a rebel to the British Government. I
have seen the most wan ion insults prac-
tised upon men of all ranks and condi-
tions. I have seen the most grievous
oppressions exercised, in consequence of
a presumption that the person who was
the unfortunate object of such oppression
was in hostility to the Government ; and
yet that has been done in a part of the
country as quiet and as free from disturb-
ance as the city of London. Who states
these things, my lords, should, I know, be
prepared with proofs. I am prepared
with them. Many of the circumstances
I know of my own knowledge ; others I
have received from such channels as will
not permit me to hesitate one moment in
giving credit to them.

“ His lordship then observed that, from
education and early habits, the curfew was
ever considered by Britons as a badge of
slavery and oppression. It then was
practised in Ireland with brutal rigour.
He had known an instance where a
master of a house had in vain pleaded to
be allowed the use of a candle to enable
the mother to administer relief to her
daughter struggling in convulsive fits.
In former times, it had been the custom
for Englishmen to hold the infamous pro-
ceedings of the inquisition in detestation.
One of the greatest horrors with which it
was attended was that the person, igno-
rant of the crime laid to his charge, or of
his accuser, was torn from his family,
immured in a prison, and in the most
cruel uncertainty as to the period of his
confinement, or the fate which awaited
him. To this injustice, abhorred by Pro-
testants in the practice of the inquisition,
were the people of Ireland exposed. All
confidence, ail security were taken away.
In alluding to the inquisition he had
omitted to mention one of its character-
istic features. If the supposed culprit
refused to acknowledge the crime with
which he was charged, he was put to the
rack, to extort confession of whatever
crime was alleged against him by the
pressure of torture. The same proceed-
ings had been introduced in Ireland.
When a man was taken up on suspicion
he was put to the torture ; nay, if he were
merely accused of concealing the guilt of
another. The rack, indeed, was not at
hand ; but the punishment of picqueting
was in practice, which had been for some
years abolished as too inhuman, even in
the dragoon service. He had known a

man, in order to extort confession of a
supposed crime, or of that of some of his
neighbours, picqueted till he actually
fainted — picqueted a second time till he
fainted again, and, as soon as he came to
himself, picqueted a third time till he once
more fainted ; and all upon mere suspi-
cion! Nor was this the only species of
torture. Men had been taken and hung
up till they were half dead, and then
threatened with a repetition of the cruel
treatment unless they made confession of
the imputed guilt. These were not par-
ticular acts of cruelty, exercised by men
abusing the power committed to them,
but they formed a part of our system.
They were notorious, and no person could
say who would be the next victim of this
oppression and cruelty, which he saw
others endure. This, however, was not
all ; their lordships, no doubt, would
recollect the famous proclamation issued
by a military commander in Ireland, re-
quiring the people to give up their arms.
It never was denied that this proclamation
was ilegal, though defended on some sup-
posed necessity ; but it was not surprising
that some reluctance had been shown to
comply with it by men who conceived the
Constitution gave them a right to keep
arras in their houses for their own de-
fence ; and they could not but feel indig-
nation in being called upon to give up
their right. In the execution of the order
the greatest cruelties had been committed.
If any one was suspected to have concealed
weapons of defence, his house, his furni-
ture, and all his property was burnt ; but
this was not all. If it were supposed that
any district had not surrendered all the
arms which it contained, a party was sent
out to collect the number at which it was
rated ; and, in the execution of this order,
thirty houses were sometimes burnt down
in a single night. Ofl&cers took upon
themselves to decide discretionally the
quantity of arms ; and upon their opin-
ions these fatal consequences followed.
Many such cases might be enumerated ;
but, from prudential motives, he wished
to draw a veil over more aggravated
facts which he could have stated, and
which he was willing to attest before
the Privy Council, or at their lord-
ships’ bar. These facts were well
known in Ireland, but they could not
be made public through the channel of
the newspapers, for fear of that sum-
mary mode of punishment which had
been practised towards the Northern
Star, when a party of troops in open day,
and in a town where the General’s head-
quarters were, went and destroyed all the
oilices and property belonging to that

264

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

paper. It was thus authenticated ac-
counts were suppressed.”

The same system of horrors had pro-
ceeded, with aggravations of brutality,
from November, 1797 ; and it was in vain
that any patriotic Irishman, who still
attended Parliament, attempted, from
time to time, to procure some kind of
inquiry into the necessity for all this.
Both Houses of Parliament were entirely
in the hands of the Castle ; and Clare and
Castlereagh bore down all such efforts by
the most insolent audacity of assertion.

On the 5th of March, Sir Lawrence
Parsons, after a long and interesting
speech, made a motion that a committee
should be appointed to inquire into the
state of the country, and to suggest such
measures as were likely to conciliate
the popular mind. Lord Caulfield, in a
maiden speech of much ability, seconded
the motion. Lord Castlereagh, with
whom the majority of the House went,
vehemently opposed it. He entered into
a history of the country for some years
back, and concluded from the events that
the United Irishmen were not men who
would be contented or conciliated by any
measures of copcession short of a separa-
tion from England, and fraternity with
the French Republic ; that they were in
open rebellion, and, therefore, only to be
met by force. He reasoned also to prove
that the coercive measures of the Govern-
ment had been the consequences, not the
causes, of the discontents ; that the excesses
charged on the soldiery were naturally
to be expected from the state of things,
though he did not cease to lament them ;
and he also contended that where excesses
had taken place the laws were open, and
able to punish them.

This last assertion of his lordship about
the law, was well known by every man
who heard him to be simply false; but
not more false than his assertion that
military outrages were the consequences,
not the cause, of the existing troubles.
But being sure of an immense majority
at his back, he could say what he pleased.
The resolution offered by Sir Lawrence
Parsons was negatived by an immense
majority.

It was the same case in the House of
Lords. Lord Moira, after vainly trying to
make an impression on the peers of Eng-
land, came over to make a last effort
with those of Ireland. He made a speech
very similar to that which he had made
at "Westminster, and reciting the same
facts ; ending with a motion for an ad-
dress to the Viceroy. Lord Clare, the
Chancellor, replied in the same tone of
cool and dashing insolence which had

now become the settled and preconcerted
style of debate with the partisans of the
Castle.

The Lord- Chancellor, after paying a
just compliment to the character of the
noble earl, attributed to his residence out
of his own country his ignorance of it.
“ He asserted that the system of Govern-
ment had been a system of conciliation ; that
in no place had the experiment been so
fairly tried as in Ireland ; in none had it
so completely failed.”

Lord Moira’s motion was also nega-
tived, of course ; and it was evident that,
so far as Parliament was concerned, the
people were to be delivered over without
reprieve to the picquetings of the soldiery
and the knotted scourges of the yeoman.

Some degree of colour began at last to
be given to the constant statements of
Lord Castlereagh — that the country was
in open rebellion ; for in the months of
February and March, there were several
tumultuous assemblages at night ; their
object was to search for arms ; and as-
suredly no people ever stood in more deadly
need of arms than the Irish people then
did. On one day in March, a party of
mounted men even entered the little town
of Cahir, county of Tipperary, in the
open day, and took away all the arms
they could find there. They appear to
have gone as they came, without com-
mitting any violence or outrage.* Still
there was not that general insurrectionary
movement for Avhich Mr. Pitt was wait-
ing ; and it was now, therefore, resolved
to give another turn to the screAv of coer-
cion. It was in the month of April that
Sir Ralph Abercrombie, after two or three
months’ experience of his command, when
he found that the army was expected to
be used to goad the people to despair,
while habits of marauding and “free
quarters ” were fast destroying the dis-
cipline of the troops themselves, resigned
his post as Commander-in-Chief. His
resignation Avas undoubtedly caused, as
Lord Carhampton’s had been, by his dis-
covery that he was expected to act, not
for the repression of rebellion, but in
order to excite it. Of course, his military
habits and principles Avould not permit
him to say as much, nor to hint at any
fault on the part of the Lord-Lieutenant ;

* Plnwden, Hist. Revietc. This writer, indeed,
alle}?es that the peasants in those two months
“committed many murders;" but though a
Catholic writer, his w'ell-known political principles
make him always too ready to charge crimes on
very doubtful evidence, upon all Catholics who
were not “ loyal” to the King of England. He does
not particularize any of these “many murders;”
and it may, therefore, be fairly doubted that there
were any murders, except, perhaps, of an occasional
tithe-proctor.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

265

yet the first paragraph of his famous
“ General Order ” was at once seen to be
so wholly at variance with the plans and
policy of the Government, that there was
nothing left for Sir Ralph but to resign,
and seek some more honourable employ-
ment for his sword. The General Order
is as follows : —

“Adjutant-General’s Office,

Dublin, Feb. 26, 1798.

[“ General Orders.~\

“The very disgraceful frequency of
courts-martial, and the many complaints
of the conduct of the troops in this king-
dom, having too unfortunately proved
the army to be in a state of licentiousness,
which must render it formidable to every
one but the enemy ; the Commander-in-
Chief thinks it necessary to demand from
all generals commanding districts and
brigades, as well as commanding officers
of regiments, that they exert themselves,
and compel, from all ofllcers under their
command, the strictest and most unre-
mitting attention to the discipline, good
order, and conduct of their men ; such as
may restore the high and distinguished
reputation the British troops have been
accustomed to enjoy in every part of the
world. It becomes necessary to recur,
and most pointedly to attend to the
standing orders of the kingdom, which
at the same time that they direct
military assistance to be given at the
requisition of the civil magistrate, posi-
tively forbid the troops to act (but in
case of attack) without his presence and
authority ; and the most clear and precise
orders are to be given to the officer com-
manding the party for this purpose.

“ The utmost prudence and precaution
are also to be used in granting parties to
revenue officers, with respect to the person
requiring such assistance and those em
ployed on the duty ; whenever a guard is
mounted, patrols must be frequently out
to take up any soldier who may be found
out of his quarters after his hours.

“ A very culpable remissness having
also appeared on the part of officers re-
specting the necessary inspection of bar-
racks, quarters, messes, &c., as well as
attendance at roll-calls, and other hours ;
commanding officers must enforce the
attention of those under their command
to those points, and the general regula-
tions ; for all which the strictest respon-
sibility will be expected from them.

It is of the utmost importance that
the discipline of the dragoon regiments
should be minutely attended to, for the
facilitating of which the Commander-in-

Chief has dispensed with the attendance
of orderly dragoons on himself, and
desires that they may not be employed
by any general or commanding officers
but on military and indispensable busi-
ness. “G. IIEWIT,

“ Adjutant- General.

“Lieut.-Gen, Craig,

“ Eastern District Barracks, Dublin."

The resignation of Sir Ralph Aber-
crombie was immediately followed by the
departure of Mr. becretary Pelham ; who,
as Mr. Plowden alleges, also disapproved
of the new plan of “ prematurely explod-
ing the rebellion” by the simple machinery
of goading the people to despair. It is
notorious that in Ireland the active Mi-
nister, upon whom the odium or merit of
the Government measures personally fell,
was the first Secretary of the Lord-Lieu-
tenant. Through his mouth did His
Excellency speak to the House of Com-
mons ; from him did the nation expect the
reason, and upon him chiefly rested the
responsibility of the Government measures
in the belief of the public. His sentiments
were, of course, concluded to be in perfect
unison with the Lord-Lieutenant, as his
voice was the organ of His Excellency.
It appears that Mr. Pelham, however
earnest and firm he had been in opposing
Catholic Emancipation and Parliamen-
tary Reform, which two questions Earl
Camden had avowedly been sent to op-
pose, was very far from approving the
harsh and sanguinary means of dragoon-
ing the people which had been for some
time practised, and were intended to be
persevered in.* He resolved, therefore,

* We do not desire to use stronger language tha*
the facts will warrant, nor to advance, without
sufficient authority, against any Government so
atrocious a charge as that of resolving to goad a
people into insurrection, in order to make a pretext
for slaughtering them first, and depriving their
country of its national existence afterwards. This
system at this time, viz., 5th April, 1798, Mr.
Grattan has thus described: “Here we perceive
and lament the effects of inveteracy, conceived by
His Majesty’s Ministers against the Irish. ‘ Irri-
table and quellable, devoted to superstition, deaf to
law, and hostile to property ; ’ such was the picture
which at different times his Ministers in Ireland
have painted of his people, with a latent view to
flatter the English by the degredation of the Irish,
and by such sycophantship and malice, they have
persuaded themselves to consider their fellow
subjects as a different species of human creature,
fair objects of religious proscription and political
incapacities, but not of moral relationship, or moral
obligation ; accordingly, they have afforded in-
demnity for the rich, and new pains and penalties
for the people ; they have given felonious descrip-
tions of His Majesty’s subjects, and have easily-
persuaded themselves to exercise felonious practices
against their lives and properties ; they have
become as barbarous as their .system, and as
savage as their own description of their country-
men and their equals ; and now it seems they have

266

HISTORY OF IRELYND.

to retire from a situation in which he was
under the necessity of giving official coun-
tenance and support to a system which in
principle he abhorred, and which he knew
to have been extorted from the Chief
Governor, whose immediate and respon-
sible agent he was before the public.
The last time he spoke in public was on
Sir Lawrence Parsons’ motion, w^hich he
opposed in a manner that evidently be-
trayed the uneasiness of his own situa-
tion. Mr. Pelham, however, did not
resign. Indeed, Sir Jonah Barrington,
and other authorities, affirm that he
only went to England on account of
ill-health. At any rate, his successor in
active duty (but only at first as locum
tenens) was Lord Castlereagh — afterwards
Lord Londonderry — perhaps the ablest,
and certainly the worst, man who ever
“ did the king’s business ” in Ireland.
He was not gazetted as Secretary till the
next year.

(jreueral Lake was placed provisionally
in command of the forces ; and the way
was now open for the full development of
the bloody conspiracy of the Government
against the people. There was now con-
centrated in Ireland a force of at least
130,000 men, including regular troops,
English and Scotch fencible regiments
and Irish militia. But even this Avas not
enough. On the 23rd of April, the new
Secretary announced to the House of
Commons that two regiments of “ foreign
troops ” had been ordered to Ireland.
These were the Hessians, German mer-
cenaries from Hesse Darmstadt and Hesse
Cassel, who had been for some time
favourite instruments of the British Go-
vernment for dragooning any refractory
population.

On the 30th of March, the whole coun-
try was placed under martial law by pro-
clamation. It was the first time that the
County of Wexford had been proclaimed
under the “ Insurrection act;” and ‘‘from
that moment,” says Miles Byrne, “ every
one considered himself walking on a
mine, ready to be blown up ; and all
sighed for orders to begin.” Orders
were at once issued from the Castle
that the military should proceed at their
own absolute discretion in all measures

communicated to the British Minister, at once,
tlieir deleterious maxims and their foul expressions,
and he too indul.es and wantons in villainous dis-
courses a^rainsl the people of Ireland, sounding: the
horiid trumpet of cirnagre and separation. Thus
the laii^juaf^e of the Ministers becomes an encour-
agement to the army to murder the Irish.

“We leave these scenes, they are dreadful; a
Ministry in league with the abettors of the Orange
Boys and at war with the people ; a people unable
t« prf>cure a ht-aring in either country, while the
loquacity of their enemies besieges the throne."

which any officer should judge needful
for suppressing that rebellion which did
not yet exist, but tvhich it was fully de-
termined should immediately break out.
A favourite measure of Lord Castlereagh
was the system of “ free quarters.” His
lordship knetv thoroughly the people of
his country ; and was aware that nothing
could so certainly and promptly goad
them into desperate resistance as the
quartering of an insolent and licentious
soldiery in their houses and amongst their
families. “ Free quarters,” therefore, Avere
at once ordered ; the magistrates of the
“ Ascendency ” were at the same time
assured that whatever they should think
fit to do against the people should be con-
sidered well done. They had already (by
the “Indemnity Act”) carte blanche, at
any rate ; and now, under the new im-
pulsion given by the neAv Secretary, they
vied Avith one another in atrocity. In the
Counties of Kildare. Meath, Dublin, Car-
low, WickloAv, and Wexford, the horrors of
this oppression were especially grievous.
The good Miles Byrne, every word of
Avhose narration is thoroughly worthy of
implicit trust, says : “ The military placed
on free quarters Avith the inhabitants were
mostly furnished by the Ancient Britons,
a cruel regiment, which became obnoxious
from the many outrages they committed,
Avherever they Avere stationed ; being
quartered in houses Avhere the men had
to absent themselves, the unfortunate
females who remained had to suffer all
sorts of brutality from these ferocious
monsters. What hardships, Avhat calami-
ties and miseries had not the wretched
people to suffer, on whom Avere let loose
such a body of soldiery as Avere then in
Ireland !”

This gallant old Miles Byrne, Avriting
from his notes sixty years afterAvards (he
Avas but eighteen years old in 1798), thus
details some few of the scenes Avhich
passed in liis county, and Avithin his own
knoAvledge : —

“ Many of the loAv-bred magistrates
aA’ailed themselves of the martial laAv to
prove their vast devotion to Government,
by persecuting, and often torturing, the
inoffensive country people. Archibald
Hamilton Jacob and the Enniscorthy
Yeomen Cavalry never marched out of
the town without being accompanied by
a regular executioner, Avith his ropes, cat-
o’-nine-tails, &c.

“ Hawtry White, Solomon Richards,
and a Protestant minister of the name of
Owens, Avereall notorious for their cruelty
and persecuting spirit ; the latter particu-
larly so, putting on pitch caps, and exer-
cising other torments. To the credit of

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

267

some of his victims, when the vile fellow
himself was in their power, and was brought
a prisoner to the insurgent camp at Gorey.
they sought no other revenge than that of
putting a pitch cap on him. I had often
diflficulty in preventing the others who
, had suffered so much at his hands, from
tearing him to pieces. He, in the end,
escaped, with many other prisoners, being
escorted and guarded by men who did not
consider that revenge, or retaliation of
any kind, would forward the sacred cause
they were embarked in ; particularly as
they were desirous it should not be
thought that it was a religious war they
were engaged in. Although several of
the principal chiefs of the United Irish-
men were Protestants, the Orange magis-
trates did all they could to spread the
belief that the Catholics had no other
object in view but to kill their Protestant
fellow-subjects, and to give weight to this
opinion, they did what they could to pro-
voke the unfortunate people to commit
outrages and reprisals, by killing some
and burning their houses.

“ In short, the state of the country pre-
vious to the insurrection is not to be ima-
gined, except by those who witnessed the
atrocities of every description committed
by the military and the Orangemen, who
were let loose on the unfortunate, defence-
less population.

“ The infamous Hunter Gowan * now
sighed for an opportunity to vent his
ferocious propensity of murdering his
Catholic neighbours in cold blood. When
the yeomanry corps was first formed, he
was not considered sufficiently respectable
to be charged with the command of one ;
but in consequence of the proclamation of
martial law, he soon obtained a commis-
sion of the peace and was created a cap-
tain, and was commissioned to raise a
cavalry corps ; in a short time he suc-
ceeded in getting about thirty or fortj-
low Orangemen, badly mounted ; but they
soon procured better horses at the expense
of the unfortunate farmers, who were
plundered without redress. This corps
went by the name of the Black Mob ;
their first campaign was to arrest all the
Catholic blacksmiths, and to burn their
houses. Poor William Butter, James
Haydon, and Dalton, smiths whom we
employed to shoe our horses and do
other work for many years before, were
condemned to be transported, according
to the recent law enacted, that magis-
* This Hunter Gowan had been horsewhipped by
one of the Byrnes, old Garrett Byrne, of Bally-
manus. Miles Byrne says, “ Gowan took the law
of Garret Byrne, and ran him into great expense.”
He soon, howe\ er, found out even a more effectual
method of having his revenge upon the Byrnes.

trates upon their own authority could
sentence to transportation. But the
monster. Hunter Gowan, thinking this
kind of punishment too slight, wished
to give his young men an opportunity to
prove they were staunch blood-hounds.
Poor Garrett Pennell, who had just landed
from England, and was on his M'ay to see
his father and family, Avas met by this
corps, and tied by his tAVo hands up to a
tree ; they then stood at a certain distance
and each man lodged the contents of his
carbine in the body of poor Pennell, at
their captain’s command.

“They then Avent to a house close by,
where they shot James Darcy, a poor in-
offensive man, the father of five children.
The bodies of these two murdered vic-
tims were Avaked that night in the chapel
of Monaseed, where the unhappy Avomen
and children assembled to lament their
slaughtered relatives. This chapel was
afterwards burned. Poor Pennell left a
young widow and tAvo children. This
cruel deed took place on the road between
our house and the chapel. The day after,
the 25th of May, 1798, distant about three
miles from our place, one of the most
bloody deeds took place that was ever
recorded in Irish history since the days
of CromAvell. TAventy-eight fathers of
families, prisoners, were shot and mas-
sacred in the Ball Alley of CarneAv,
Avithout trial. Mr Cope, the Protestant
minister, Avas one of the principal magis-
trates Avho presided at this execution. I
kneAv several of the murdered men ; par-
ticularly Pat Murphy, of Knockbrandon,
at Avhose wedding I Avas two years before ;
he Avas a brave and most worthy man,
and much esteemed. William Young, a
Protestant, was amongst the slaughtered.

“ At Dunlavin, County of Wicklow,
previous to the rising, thirty-four men
Avere shot without any trial ; officers, to
their disgrace, presiding and sanctioning
these proceedings. But it is useless to
enumerate or continue the list of cruelties
perpetrated ; it Avill suffice to say, that
where the military were placed on free
quarters, and where all kinds of crime
Avere committed, the people were not
Avorse off than those living where no
soldiers Avere quartered ; for in the latter
instance, the inhabitants were generally
called to their doors, and shot without
ceremony ; their houses being immedi-
ately burned or plundered.

“ This Avas the miserable state our part
of the country Avas in at the beginning of
May, 1798. All were obliged to quit
their houses and hide themselves the best
way they could. Ned Fennell, Nicholas
Murphy, and I agreed, the last time we

268

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

met, previous to the insurrection, that
through the means of our female friends
we should do everything in our power to
keep the people from desponding, for we
had every reason to hope that ere long
there would be orders received for a
general rising from the Directory, We
also promised to endeavour to get news
from Dublin, if possible, and at least
from Arklow, through Phil Neill and
young Garrett Graham, of that town,
both of them very active and well known
to the principal men in Dublin, and
through them and Anthony Perry we ex-
pected shortly to receive instructions for
what was best to be done, under the criti-
cal circumstances in which we were
placed. I was daily in hopes of getting
some information from my step-brother
Kennedy (at Dublin), and on this account
I remained as long as I could in the
neighbourhood of our place, keeping
away, however, from my mother’s house ;
sleeping at night in the fields, watching
in the daytime from the hills and high
grounds to see if the military or yeomen
were approaching.”

It was a needful part of the general
plan of Government to extend and en-
courage the Orange societies, and to
exasperate them against their Catholic
neighbours. Of the precise connection
between the Castle and the Orange lodges
it is not, of course, easy to ascertain the
precise terms and extent. It is, however,
notorious that, while the Irish and Eng-
lish Government has always professed to
disapprove the sanguinary principles of
the (Orangemen, they have always relied
upon that body in seasons of threatened
revolt, as a willing force to crush the
mass of the people ; and that even so late
as 184:8, arms were secretly issued to the
lodges from Dublin Castle. We have
already seen Mr. Grattan’s distinct declar-
ation that “ the Ministry was in league
with the abettors of the Orange Boys, and
at war with the people.” In the examina-
tion of Mr. Arthur O’Connor before the
Secret Committee, we find O’Connor de-
scribing the i)roceedings of the Govern-
ment in these terms : —

“ Finding how necessary it was to have
some part of the population on their side,
they had recourse to the old religious
feuds, and set an organization of Pro-
testants, whose fanaticism would not per-
mit them to see they were enlisted under
the banners of religion, to fight for a
political usurpation they abhorred. No
doubt, by these means you have gained a
temporary aid, but by destroying the
organization of the Union, and exaspe-
rating the great body of the people, you

will one day pay dearly for the aid you
have derived from this temporary shift.

*• Committee. — Government had nothing
to do with the Orange system, nor their
extermination.

“ O'Connor. — You, my lord (Castle-
reagh), from the station you fill, must be
sensible that the executive of any country
has in its power to collect a vast mass of
information, and you must know from the
secret nature and the zeal of the Union,
that its executive must have the most
minute information of every act of the
Irish Government. As one of the execu-
tive, it came to my knowledge that con-
siderable sums of money were expended
throughout the nation in endeavouring to
extend the Orange system, and that the
oath of extermination was administered.
When these facts are coupled, not only
with general impunity, which has bee»^
uniformly extended towards the acts o
this infernal association, but the marke'^
encouragement its members have received
from Government, I find it impossible to
exculpate the Government from being the
parent and protector yf these sworn extir-
pators.”

In common fairness, we must give the
Orange body the benefit of whatever credit
can possibly be accorded to their own
denial of their alleged oath of extermina-
tion. Early in this year, while the Go-
vernment was scourging the people into
revolt, certain Grand Masters of the
Orangemen met in Dublin, and pub-
lished the following document : —

“ To the Loyal Subjects of Ireland:

“ From the various attempts that have
been made to poison the public mind, and
slander those who have had the spirit to
adhere to their King and Constitution,
and to maintain the laws,

“ We, the Protestants of Dublin, as-
suming the name of Orangemen, feel
ourselves called upon, not to vindicate
our principles, for we know that our
honour and loyalty bid defiance to the
shafts of malevolence and disaffection,
but openly to disavow these principles
and declare to the world the objects of
our institution.

“ We have long observed with indigna-
tion, the efforts that have been made to
foment rebellion in this kingdom, by the
seditious, who have formed themselves
into societies under the specious name of
United Irishmen.

“We have seen with pain the lower
orders of our fellow-subjects forced or
seduced from their allegiance, by the
threats and machinations of traitors.

“ And we have viewed with horror the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

2G9

successful exertions of miscreants to en-
courage a foreign enemy to invade this
happy land, in hopes of rising into con-
sequence on the downfall of their country.

“ We, therefore, thought it high time
to rally round the Constitution, and
pledge ourselves to each other to main-
tain the laws and support our good King
against all his enemies, whether rebels to
their God or to their country, and by so
doing, show to the world that there is a
body of men in this island who are ready
in the hour of danger to stand forward in
the defence of that grand palladium of
our liberty, the Constitution of Great
Britain and Ireland, obtained and estab-
lished by the courage and loyalty of our
ancestors, under the great King William.

“ Fellow-subjects, we are accused of
being an institution foundevl on principles
too shocking to repeat, and bound to-
gether by oaths at which human ; ature
would shudder ; but we caution you not
to be led away by such malevolent false-
hoods, for we solemnly assure you, in the
presence of (he Almighty God, that the
idea of wjurin<j avy one on account of his
religious o/iinions never entered into our
hearts! We regard every loyal subject
as our friend, be his religion what it may,
we have no enmity but to the enemies of
our country.

“ We further declare, that we are ready
at all times to submit ourselves to the or-
ders of those in authority under His Ma-
jesty, an 1 that we will cheerfully under-
take any duty which they should think
proper to point out for us, in case either
a foreign enemy shall dare to invade our
coasts, or that a domestic foe should pre-
sume to raise the standard of rebellion
in the land ; to these principles we are
pledged, and in support of them we are
ready to shed tlie last drop of our blood.

Signed by order of the several lodges
in Dublin, for selves and other Masters,

“ 'FiIOMAS V ERNEK,
liiDWAKD Ball,

.John Claudius Beresford,
Will! AM .James,

Isaac Dejoncourt.”

The credit which can be given to this
profession of ijrinciples is much dimi-
nished, or reduced to nothing, by the fact
alread}' rec-orded. tha' immediately on the
esiablishraent of the first Orange Lodges
in Armagh County (the first of the above
addressers being the founder and first
Grand IMaster). the members of those
lodges did forthwith set themselves to the
task of extirpating all their Catholic
neighbours, solely because they were
Catholics ; and that in one year they had

slain, or driven from their homes, four-
teen hundred families, or seven thousand
individuals.

It is further notorious that the Orange
yeomanry serving in Leinster were
amongst the most furious and savage
torturers of the people.

CHAPTER XXXIIL
1798.

Reynolds, the Informer. — Arrests of U. I. Chiefs in
Dublin. — The lirothers Sheares. — Their Efforts
to Delay Explosion. — Clare and Castlereagh
Resolve to Hurry it. — Advance of the Military.
— Half-Hanging. — Fitch Caps. — Scourging. —
Judkin Fitzgerald. — .Sir John Moore's Testi-
mony.— His Disgust at the Atrocities. — General
Napier's Testimony. — Catholic Bishops and
Peers Profess their “ Loyalty.’* — Armstrong, In-
former.— Arrest of the Sheares. — Arrest and
Death of Lord Edward. — Mr. Emmet’s Evidence
before Secret Committee. — Insurrection Breaks
Out. — The 23rd of May. — Naas. — Prosperous. —
Kilcullen. — Proclamation of Lake. — Of the Lord
Mayor of Dublin. — Skirmishes at Carlow. —
Hacketstown, &c. — Insurgents have the Advan-
tage at Dunboyne. — Attack on Carlow.— Execu-
tions.— Sir E. Crosbie. — Massacre at Gibbet Rath
of Kildare. — Slaughter on Tara Hill. — Suppression
of Insurrection in Kiidare, Dublin, and Meath.

The Government was now preparing its
master-stroke, which was both to cause a
premature explosion of the insurrection,
and to deprive the people at one blow of
their leaders, both civil and military.
There existed, unfortunately, at that
period, one Thomas Reynolds, a silk
mercer of Dublin, who had purchased an
estate in the county of Kildare, called
Kilkea Castle, and from the fortune he
had acquired, commanded considerable
influence with his Catholic brethren.
Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Oliver
Bond, two leaders in the conspiracy,
having, for these reasons, considered
him a proper person to assist in forward-
ing their revolutionary designs, easily
attached him to their cause ; and having
succeeded, he was soon after sworn an
United Irishman, at the house of Oliver
Bond, in Dublin; in the year 1797, he
accepted the commission of colonel, the
offices of treasurer and representative of
the county of Kildare, and at last that
of delegate for the province of Leinster.
He had money dealings about a mortgage
of some lands at Castle Jordon with a
Mr, Cope, a Dublin merchant, who having
lamented to him, in the course of conver-
sation, the undoubted symptoms of an
approaching rebellion, Mr. Reynolds said
that he knew a person connected with
the United Irishmen, who, he believed.

270

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

would defeat their nefarious projects, by
communicating them to Government, in
order to make an atonement for the crime
he had committed in joining them. Mr.
Cope assured him that such a person
would obtain the highest honours and
pecuniary rewards that administration
could confer. In short, after making
his conditions, and receiving in hand
five hundred guineas as a first payment
on account, he told Mr. Cope that the
Leinster delegates were to meet at Oliver
Bond’s on the 12th of March, to concert
measures for an insurrection which was
shortly to take place, but did not at that
time acknowledge that the information
came directly from him, but insinuated
that it was imparted by a third person.

In consequence of this. Justice Swan,
attended by twelve sergeants in coloured
clothes, arrested the Leinster delegates,
thirteen in number, while sitting in coun-
cil in the house of Oliver Bond, in Bridge
street, on the 12th of March, 1798. and
seized several of their papers, which led
to the discovery of all their plans ; and
on the same day, Messrs Emmet, M*Ne-
ven. Bond, Sweetman, Henry Jackson,
and Hugh Jackson were arrested and
taken into custody; and warrants were
granted against Lord Edward Fitzgerald
and Messrs. M‘Cormick and Sampson,
who, having notice thereof, maue their
escape.*

The leaders did not intend to make an
insurrection till the French came to their
assistance ; and they meant in the mean-
time to continue to increase their numbers,
and to add to their stock of arms.

On the removal of so many valuable
leaders everything was done that could
be done to repair the loss, and to keep
the United Irishmen quiet ; for it was
now very well understood that the de-
sign of the Government was to provoke
a premature explosion. The two brothers
Sheares, Henry and John, both barristers,
and gentlemen of high character and
excellent education, took charge of the
Government of the Leinster Societies.
A handbill was immediately circulated,
to keep up the spirits of the people,
cautioning them against being either
“ goaded into untimely violence or sunk
into pussillanimous despondency.” The
handbill concluded thus : “ Be firm. Irish-
men, but be cool and cautious. Be patient
yet awhile. Trust to no unauthorized

*A few days after these arrests there was a
meetinf? of the Provincial Committee at the
“ Brazen Head Hotel.” It was there proposed by
a man named Reynolds, a distant relative of tl)e
traitor, that Thomas Reynolds should be put out of
the way — that is, assassinated. The proposal was
rejected unanimously.— Madden, 1st Series.

communication ; and above all, we warn
you — again and again we warn you —
against doing the works of your tyrants
by premature, by partial or divided ex-
ertion. If Ireland shall be forced to throw
away the scabbard, let it be at her own
time, not theirs.”

But Lords Camden, Clare, and Castle-
reagh were determined that it should be
at their time. Universal military execu-
tions and “free quarters” were at once
proclaimed all over the country.

It is difficult to detail with due historic
coolness the horrors which followed the
proclamation of the 30th of March ; nor
can we wonder that Dr. Madden expresses
himself thus upon the occasion : — “ The
rebellion did not break out till May, 1798,
and, to use the memorable words of Lord
Castlereagh, even then ‘ measures were
taken by Government to cause its pre-
mature explosion ; ’ words which include
the craft, cruelty, and cold-blooded, de-
liberate wickedness of the politics of a
Machiavelli, the principles of a Thug,
and the perverted tastes and feelings of a
eunuch in the exercise of power and
authority, displayed in acts of sly malig-
nity and stealthy, vindictive turpitude,
perpetrated on pretence of serving pur-
poses of state.”

Besides, Lord Castlereagh, if he was
really the chief adviser of those measures
to cause a premature explosion, was not
the only person who approved of them.
The same Secret Committee whose report
is so often cited, states, “ that it appears,
from a variety of evidence laid before
your committee, that the rebellion would
not have broken out as soon as it did had
it not been for the well-timed measures
adopted by Government subsequent to
the proclamation of the Lord-Lieutenant
and Council, bearing date 30th of March,
1798.” It is necessary to ascertain what
these well-timed measures were. On the
examination of the state prisoners before
this committee in August, 1798, the Lord-
Chancellor put the folloAving question to
Mr. Emmet : “ Pray, Mr. Emmet, what
caused the late insurrection ? ” To which
Mr. Emmet replied : “ The free quarters,
house-burnings, tortures, and the military
executions in the counties of Kildare,
Carlow, and Wicklow ! ” Messrs. M‘Neven
and O’Connor gave similar replies to the
same query.

However that may be, it remains now
to give something like a connected nar-
rative of what was actually done, and
how the premature explosion did burst
out.*

* The authorities for this period are nmnerons —
Sir Richard Musgrave, Hay, Gordon, Miles Byrne,

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

271

The proclamation which was published
on the 30th of March declared that a
traitorous conspiracy, existing within
the kingdom for the destruction of the
established Government, had been con-
siderably extended, and had manifested
itself in acts of open violence and rebel-
lion ; and that, in consequence thereof,
the most direct and positive orders had
been issued to the officers commanding
his Majesty’s forces to employ them with
the utmost rigour and decision for the
immediate suppression of that conspiracy,
and for the disarming of the rebels and all
disaffected persons, by the most summary
and effectual measures. To Sir Ralph
Abercrombie, then chief commander of
the forces, orders Avere issued from the
Lord-Lieutenant to proceed with his army
into the disturbed counties, vested with
full powers to act according to his discre-
tion for the attainment of the proposed
object. A manifesto, dated from his
headquarters at Kildare, the 3rd of April,
was addressed to the inhabitants of the
county by the General, requiring them
to surrender their arms in the space of
ten days from the date of the notice,
threatening, in case of non-compliance, to
to distribute large bodies of troops among
them to live at free quarters — promising
rewards to such as would give informa-
tion of concealed arms or ammunition —
and announcing his resolution of re-
curring to other severities if the county
should still continue in a disturbed state.

On the advance of the military into
each county, the same notice was given
to its inhabitants, and at the expiration
of the term prescribed the troops were
quartered on the houses of the disaffected
or suspected, in numbers proportioned to
the supposed guilt and ability of the
owners, whose pecuniary circumstances
were often deeply injured by the main-
tenance of the soldiery, and the waste
which was otherwise made of their effects.
Numbers of houses, with their furniture,
were burned, in which concealed arms had
been found, in which meetings of the
Union had been holden, or whose occu-
pants had been guilty of the fabrication
of pikes, or had been suspected of other
practices for the promotion of the con-
spiracy. Numbers were daily scourged,
picqueted, or otherwise put to pain, to
force confessions of concealed arms or
plots. Outrageous acts of severity were
often committed by persons not in the
regular troops — some from an unfeigned

<fec., for County Wexford. In the text we adopt
in the main the narrative of Plovpden, checking it
where needful by the documents assembled together
by Madden, Lord Camden’s dispatches, &c.

and others from an affected zeal for
the service of the Crown. These various
vexations amounted on the whole to such
a mass of disquietude and distress that
the exhortations of the chiefs to bear their
evils with steady patience, until an oppor-
tunity of successful insurrection should
occur, proved vain with the lower classes.

To authorize the burning of houses and
furniture, the wisdom of administration
may have seen as good reason as for other
acts of severity, though to many that
reason was not clear. These burnings,
doubtless, caused no small terror and
consternation to the disaffected ; but they
caused also a loss to the community at
large, rendered many quite desperate who
were deprived of their all, augmented the
violence of hatred in those among whom
those houseless people took refuge. Men
imprisoned on suspicion, or private infor-
mation, were sometimes half hanged, or
strangled almost to death, before their
guilt or innocence could be ascertained
by trial. Reflecting loyalists were much
concerned at the permission or impunity
of such acts, which tended strongly to
confirm the prejudices already so labori-
ously excited by the emissaries of re-
volution.

Among the causes which, in the troubled
interval of time previous to the grand
insurrection, contributed to the general
uneasiness, were the insults practised by
pretended zealots to the annoyance of the
truest loyalists as well as malcontents,
on persons who wore their hair short, or
happened to have any part of their ap-
parel of a green colour, both of which
were considered as emblems of republican
or of a revolutionary spirit. The term
croppy was adopted to signify a revolu-
tionist, or an enemy to the established
Government. Persons of malevolent
minds took advantage of these circum-
stances to indulge their general ma ignity
or private malice, when they could wi.h
impunity. On the heads of many who
were selected as objects of outrage, were
fixed by these pretended loyalists caps
of coarse linen or strong brown i)apcr,
smeared with pitch on the inside, which
in some instances adhered so firmly as
not to be disengaged without a laceration
of the hair, and even skin. On the other
side, several of the United party made it
a practice to seize violently such as they
thought proper or were able, and cropped
or cut their hair short, which rendered
them liable to the outrage of the pitched
cap of those pretended strenuous partisans
of the Constitution. Handkerchiefs, rib-
bons, even a sprig of myrtle and other
parts of dress marked with the obnoxious

272

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

colour, were torn or cut away from females
unconscious of disloyalty, and undesign-
edly bearing the imaginary badge. Vari-
ous other violent acts were committed,
80 far as to cut away pieces of men’s ears,
even sometimes the whole ear, or a part
of the nose ; nor could the staunchest
loyalist be certain always of exemption
from insult by being clear of all imagin-
ary marks of disloyalty ; for on the arrival
of a detachment of the army in any part
of the country where the inhabitants were
known to the officers and soldiers, which
was almost always the case, private malice
was apt to convey in whispers false in-
telligence, marking individuals, perhaps
the best members of society, as proper
objects of military outrage, and they suf-
fered accordingly.

By the system of secret accusation and
espionage thus universally adopted, with
other extraordinary measures, in this dan-
gerous crisis. Government made ample
room for the exertions of private malice.
Magistrates and military officers were
empowered to receive informations, to
keep the names of the informers pro-
foundly secret, and proceed against the
accused according to discretion.

One case deserves particular mention,
not because of its peculiar atrocity— for
there was very many such— but on ac-
count of the very singular fact that the
perpetrator was afterwards punished by
law. It is thus recorded by Mr. Gordon,
a Protestant clergyman, in his History of
the Rebellion: —

“Thomas Fitzgerald, High Sheriff of
Tipperary, seized at Clonmel a gentleman
of the name of Wright, against whom no
grounds of suspicion could be conjectured
by his neighbours, caused five hundred
lashes to be inflicted on him in the severest
manner, and confined him several days
without permitting his wounds to be
dressed, so that liis recovery from such
a state of torture and laceration could
hardly be expected. In a trial at law,
after the rebellion, on an action of dam-
ages brought by Wright against this
magistrate, the innocence of the plaintiff
appeared so manifest, even at a time when
prejudices ran amazingly high against
persons accused of disloyalty, that the
defemlant was condemned to pay five
hundred pounds to his prosecutor. Many
other actions of damages on similar
grounds would have been commenced if
the Parliament had not put a stop to such
])roceedings by an act of indemnity for
all errors committed by magistrates from
supposed zeal for the public service. A
letter written in the French Innijuwje^ found
in the pocket of Wright, was hastily con-

sidered a proof of guilt, though the letter
was of a perfectly innocent nature.”

This w'as the same Fitzgerald whom
the good and gallant Sir John Moore saw
once in the village of Clogheen engaged
in his favourite pursuit. Sir John Moore
had the misfortune, like Abercrombie, to
hold a command in that army of military
execution ; and on his march from Fer-
moy, entering the town of Clogheen, he
saw a man tied up and under the lash,
while the street itself was lined with
country people on their knees, with their
hats off ; nor was his disgust repressed
when he was informed that the High
Sheriff, Mr. Fitzgerald, was making great
discoveries, and that he had already
flogged the truth out of many respectable
persons. His rule was “to flog each per-
son till he told the truth.”

The brave Sir John Moore has borne
ample testimony to the barbarity of the
policy he had witnessed in Ireland pur-
sued by the authorities, and the revenge
the Orange gentry and yeomen indulged
in upon the poor. In speaking of Wick-
low, w'here Sir John had been chiefly
employed, he states his opinion, “tliat
moderate treatment by the generals, and
the preventing of the troops from pillag-
ing and molesting the people would soon
restore tranquillity, and the latter would
certainly be quiet if the gentry and yeo-
men would only behave with tolerable
decency, and not seek to gratify their ill-
humour and revenge upon the poor.” *

Major-General William Napier, com-
menting in the Edinburgh Review on the
Life of Sir John Moore, and the indigna-
tion he had always expressed at such
atrocious cruelty to the poor people, takes
occasion to give his own recollections of
the period. He exclaims : “ What man-
ner of soldiers were thus let loose upon
the wretched districts which the Asccnd-
Qwcy-mQu were pleoised to cull disaffected f
They were men, to use the venerable
Abercrombie’s words, who were * for-
midable to everybody but the enemy.’
We ourselves were young at the time;
yet, being connected with the army, we
were continually amongst the soldiers,
listening wiih boyish eagerness to their
conversation, and we well remember —
and with horror to this day — the tales of
lust, and blood, and pillage— the record of
their own actions against the miserable
peasantry — which they used to relate.”
And it is important to remember that all
this while there was no insurrection.
True, insurrection was intended and
longed for ; but the people were tlieu

* Review in the Edinburgh of Life of Sir J filoore.
The reviewer was Gen«.ral Wm. Napier.

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

273

neither ready nor inclined to turn out and
fight the King’s troops. They knew well
that they needed a small organized force
of regular troops to form a nucleus of an
army, and were still waiting and looking
out for the French.

In the very midst of the horrible
scourging oppression which was thus
driving the people to madness, one can
derive no pleasure from the fact that
Catholic bishops and peers took that very
time to testify their loyalty, their attach-
ment to the English Throne, and their
detestation of rebellion. On the 6th of
May, the Lords Fingal, Gormanstown,
Southwell, Kenmare, Sir Edward Bellew,
and forty-one other noblemen, gentlemen,
and professors of divinity, including
Bishop Hussey, President of Maynooth,
published a declaration under their sig-
natures, “ with a view,” says Mr. Plow-
den, “ of rescuing their body from the
imputation of abetting and favouring re-
bellion and treason.” The document was
thus addressed : — “ To such of the de-
luded people now in rebellion against His
Majesty’s Government in this kingdom as
profess the Koman Catholic religion.”
Those doctors of divinity could vilify re-
bels very much at their ease ; but if one
of them had found himself in the position
of Father John Murphy, when, on a cer-
tain day in this same month of May,
returning to his home, he found his house
and his humble chapel of Boolavogue
smoking in ruins, and his poor parishi-
oners crowding round him in wild affright,
not daring to go even to the neighbour-
hood of their ruined homes, “ for fear of
being whipped, burned, or exterminated
by the Orangemen, hearing of the number
of people that were put to death unarmed
and unoffending through the country ” —
one would be curious to know what that
doctor of divinity would have done upon
such an emergency. Probably very much
as Father John did.

A certain Captain Armstrong, an of-
ficer of the Kildare militia, a man of
some landed property and decent position
in society, was the person who now under-
took to act the part of Eeynolds, and
serve as a spy upon the brothers John
and Henry Sheares. Armstrong gained
access to the confidence, and even inti-
macy, of the Sheares, not only by his
agreeable social qualities, but by his pre-
tended zeal in the cause to which they
were devoted. He dined with the two
brothers, at their house in Baggot street,
on the 20th of May: the next morning
they were both arrested. Doctor Madden
says of this transaction : “ Captain Arm-
strong, in his evidence on the trial of the

Sheares, did not think it necessary to
state that at his Sunday’s interview (May
20th, 1798) he shared the hospitality of
his victims ; that he dined with them, sat
in the company of their aged mother and
affectionate sister, enjoyed the society of
the accomplished wife of one of them,
caressed his infant children, and on an-
other occasion — referred to by Miss Steele
— was entertained with music— the wife
of the unfortunate man, whose children
he was to leave in a few days fatherless,
playing on the harp for his entertainment !
These things are almost too horrible to
think on.

“ Armstrong, after dining with his vic-
tims on Sunday, returned to their house no
more. This was the last time the cloven
foot of treachery passed the threshold of
the Sheares. On the following morning
they were arrested and committed to
Kilmainham jail. The terrible iniquity
of Armstrong’s conduct on that Sunday
— when he dined with his victims, sat in
social intercourse with their families a
few hours only before he was aware his
treachery would have brought ruin on
that household — is unparalleled.”

We may mention here, parenthetically,
that Captain Armstrong, after having
hanged his hospitable entertainers of
Baggot street, lived himself to a good
old age (he died in 1858); but in his
interview with Dr. Madden, touching
some alleged inaccuracies in the work
of the latter, he denied having caressed
any children at Sheares’. He said “ he
never recollected having seen the children
at all ; but there was a young lady of
about fifteen there, whom he met at din-
ner. The day he dined there (and he
dined there only once), he was urged by
Lord Castlereagh to do so. It was wrong
to do so, and he (Captain Armstrong)
was sorry for it ; but he was persuaded
by Lord Castlereagh to go there to dine,
for the purpose of getting further infor-
mation.”

Perhaps the history of no other country
can show us an example of the first mini-
ster of state personally exhorting his spies
to go to a gentleman’s house and mingle
with his family in social intercourse, in
order to procure evidence to hang him.
However, his lordship did procure the
information he wanted. He found that
the leaders of the United Irishmen, being
at length convinced of the impossibility
of restraining the people and keeping them
quiet under such intolerable tyranny, had
decided on a general rising for the 23rd of
May.

The whole of the United Irishmen
throughout the kingdom, or at least

274

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

throughout the province of Leinster,
were to act at once in concert ; and it
was their intention to seize the camp of
Loughlinston, the artillery of Chapel-izod,
and the Castle of Dublin in one night —
the 23rd of May. One hour was to be al-
lowed between seizing the camp of Lough-
linstown and the artillery at Chapel-izod ;
and one hour and a half between seizing
the artillery and surprising the Castle ;
and the parties who executed both of the
external plans were to enter the city
of Dublin at the same moment. The
stopping of the mail coaches was to
be the signal for the insurgents every-
where to commence their operations. It
was also planned that a great insurrection
should take place at Cork at the same
time. The United men frere, however, at
that period, not exactly agreed as to the
nature of the insurrection. Mr. Samuel
Neilson with some other of the leaders
were bent upon attacking first the county
jail of Balmainham and the jail of New-
gate, in order to set their comrades at
liberty ; and the project for attacking the
latter was also fixed for the 23rd of May,
the night of the general insurrection.
The Sheares, however, and others were of
a contrary opinion, and they wished to
defer the attack on the jails till after the
general insurrection had taken place.

Although the Government had been
long in possession, through the communi-
cations of Reynolds, Armstrong, and
other informers, of all the particulars of
the conspiracy, they had hitherto per-
mitted or encouraged its progress, in
order, as it has been alleged, that the
suppression of it might be effected with
more eclat and terror. As the expected
explosion, however, now drew so near, it
kas found to be necessary to arrest seve-
ral of the principal leaders, who might
give direction, energy, and effect to the
insurrection. Lord Edward Fitzgerald
had concealed himself since the 12th of
March ; and, on the 18th of May, Major
Sirr, having received information that he
would pass through Watling Street that
night, and be preceded by a chosen band
of traitors as an advanced guard, and that
he would be accompanied by another, re-
paired thither, attended by Captain Ryan,
Mr. Emerson, of the Attorneys’ Corps, and
a few soldiers in coloured clothes. They
met the party which preceded him, and
had a skirmish with them on the quay at
the end of Watling Street, in which some
shots were exchanged ; and they took one
of them prisoner, who called himself at
one time Jameson, at another time Brand.

The arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald
was effected next day, the 19 th of May.

Government having received informa-
tion that he had arrived in Dublin, and
was lodged in the house of one Murphy,
a featherman in Thomas Street, sent
Major Sirr to arrest him. He, attended
by Captain Swan, of the Revenue Corps,
and Captain Ryan, of the Sepulchre’s,
and eight soldiers disguised, about five
o’clock in the evening repaired in coaches
to Murphy’s house. While they were
posting the soldiers in such a manner as
to prevent the possibility of an escape.
Captain Swan perceiving a woman run-
ning hastily up stairs, for the purpose, as
he supposed, of alarming Lord Edward,
followed her wuth the utmost speed ; and,
on entering an apartment, found Lord
Edward lying on a bed, in his dressing
jacket. He approached the bed and in-
formed his lordship that he had a warrant
against him, and that resistance would be
vain, assuring him at the same time that
he would treat him with the utmost re-
spect.

Lord Edward sprang from the bed and
snapped a pistol, which missed fire, at
Captain Swan ; he then closed with him,
drew a dagger, gave him a wound in the
hand, and different wounds in his body ;
one of them, under the ribs, Avas deep and
dangerous, and bled most copiously.

At that moment Captain Ryan entered,
and missed fire at Lord EdAvard Avith a
pocket pistol, on which he made a lunge
at him Avith a SAvord cane, which bent on
his ribs, but affected him so much that he
threAV himself on the bed ; and Captain
Ryan having throAvn himself on him, a
violent scuffle ensued, during which Lord
EdAvard drew a dagger and plunged it
into his side. They then fell on the
ground, where Captain Ryan receh'ed
many desperate wounds, one of Avhich, in
the lower part of his belly, was so large
that his bowels fell out on the floor.
Major Sirr, having entered the room, saAV
Captain SAvan bleeding, and Lord EdAvard
advancing toAvards the door, A\diile Cap-
tain Ryan, weltering in blood on the floor,
AA’as holding him by one leg and Swan by
the other. He therefore fired his pistol
at Lord Edward, Avounding him in the
shoulder. His lordship then, quite over-
powered, surrendered himself. He Avas
conveyed at once to the Castle. This
was two days before the arrest of the
Sheares. In their house in Baggot Street
AA-as found a rough draft of a proclama-
tion, which seems to have been intended
for publication on the morning after
taking possession of Dublin. It is vio-
lent and vindictive, though not approach-
ing in atrocity to the actual scenes Avhich
were then daily enacted imder the aus-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

275

pices of Government. Still, having been
published by the Government, and being
authentic (at least as a rough draft), it
forms a part of the history of the times.
It is in these words ; —

“ Irishmen, your country is free, and
you are about to be avenged. That vile
Government which has so long and so
cruelly oppressed you, is no more. Some
of its most atrocious monsters have already
paid the forfeit of their lives, and the rest
are in our hands. The national flag — the
sacred green — is at this moment flying
over the ruins of despotism ; and that
capital, which a few hours past had wit-
nessed the debauchery, the plots, and the
crimes of your tyrants, is now the citadel
of triumphant patriotism and virtue.
Arise then, united sons of Ireland — arise
like a great and powerful people, to live
free, or die. Arm yourselves by every
means in your power, and rush like lions
on your foes. Consider, that for every
enemy you disarm you arm a friend,
and thus become doubly powerful. In
the cause of liberty inaction is cowardice,
and the coward shall forfeit the property
he has not the courage to protect. Let
his arms be secured and transferred to
those gallant spirits who want and will
use them. Yes, Irishmen, we swear by
that eternal justice in whose cause you
fight, that the brave patriot who survives
the present glorious struggle, and the
family of him who has fallen, or hereafter
shall fall in it, shall receive from the
hands of the grateful nation an ample
recompense out of that property which
the crimes of our enemies have forfeited
into its hands ; and his name shall be
inscribed on the great national record of
Irish revolution, as a glorious example to
all posterity ; but we likewise swear to
punish robbery with death and infamy.
We also sw^ear that we will never sheathe
the sword till every being in the country
is restored to those equal rights which
the God of nature has given to all men ;
until an order of things shall be estab-
lished in which no superiority shall be
acknowdedged among the citizens of Erin
but that of virtue and talents. As for
those degenerate wretches who turn their
swords against their native country, the
national vengeance awaits them. Let
them find no quarter, unless they shall
prove their repentance by speedily ex-
changing the standard of slavery for that
of freedom, under which their former
errors may be buried, and they may share
the glory and advantages that are due to
the patriot bands of Ireland. Many of
the military feel the love of liberty glow
within their breasts, and have joined the

national standard. Eeceive with open
arms such as shall follow so glorious an
example. They can render signal service
to the cause of freedom, and shall be re-
warded according to their deserts. But,
for the wretch who turns his sword against
his native country, let the national venge-
ance be visited on him ; let him find
no quarter. Two other crimes demand
. . . . Rouse all the energies of your

souls ; call forth all the merits and abili-
ties which a vicious Government consigned
to obscurity ; and, under the conduct of
your chosen leaders, march with a steady
step to victory. Heed not the glare of
hired soldiery, or aristocratic yeomanry ;
they cannot stand the vigorous shock of
freedom. Their trappings and their arms
will soon be yours ; and the detested Go-
vernment of England, to which we vow
eternal hatred, shall learn that the trea-
sures it exhausts on its accoutred slaves,
for the purpose of butchering Irishmen,
shall but further enable us to turn their
swords on its devoted head. Attack them
in every direction, by day and by night.
Avail yourselves of the natural advantages
of your country, Avhich are innumerable,
and with Avhich you are better acquainted
than they. Where you cannot oppose
them in full force, constantly harass their
rear and their flanks. Cut off their pro-
visions and magazines, and prevent them
as much as possible from uniting their
forces. Let Avhatever moments you can-
not devote to fighting for your country
be passed in learning hoAv to fight for it,
or preparing the means of war ; for war,
war alone must occupy every mind and
e\’ery hand in Ireland, until its long-op-
pressed soil be purged of all its enemies.
Vengeance, Irishmen ! Vengeance on
your oppressors ! Remember what thou-
sands of your dearest friends have perished
by their merciless orders. Remember
their burnings, their rackings, their tor-
turings, their military massacres, and
their legal murders. Remember Orr !”

In this proclamation — if it really was
intended to be issued as it was drawn up
— we have at least the evidence that the
United Irishmen were banded together to
procure “ equal rights for all,” and con-
templated no oppression of any sect or
class of their countrymen. However,
such as it was, it must be considered to
have been disavowed by other leaders of
the United Irishmen then in prison. In
the examination before the Secret Com-
mittee of the Lords, as we learn by
the memoir of Emmet, M‘Neven, and
O’Connor, the following examination is
found: —

“ Lord KUwarden.-~Y ou seem averse to

276

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

insurrection ; I suppose it was because
you thought it impolitic.

Emmet. — Unquestionably ; for if I
imagined an insurrection could have suc-
ceeded, without a great waste of blood
and time, I should have preferred it to
invasion, as it would not have exposed us
to the chance of contributions being re-
quired by a foreign force ; but as I did
not think so, and as I was certain an
invasion would succeed speedily, and
without much struggle, I preferred it
even at the hazard of that inconvenience,
which we took every means to prevent.

“ Lord Dillon. — Mr. Emmet, you have
stated the views of the executive to be
very liberal and very enlightened, and 1
believe yours were so ; but let me ask you
whether it was not intended to cut off (in
the beginning of the contest) the leaders
of the opposition party by a summary
mode, such as assassination. My reason
for asking you is, John Sheares’ procla-
mation, the most terrible paper that ever
appeared in any country. It says that
‘many of your tyrants have bled, and
others must bleed,’ &c.

“ Emmet. — My lords, as to Mr. Sheares’
proclamation, he was not of the executive
when I was.

“ Lord Chancellor. — He was of the new
executive.

“ Emmet. — I do not know he was of any
executive, except from what your lord-
ship says ; but I believe he was joined
with some others in framing a particu-
lar plan of insurrection for Dublin
and its neighbourhood ; neither do I
know what value he annexed to those
words in his proclamation ; but I can an-
swer that, while I was of the executive,
there was no such design but the contrary ;
for we conceived when one of you lost
your lives we lost an hostage. Our in-
tention was to seize you all, and keep you
as hostages for the conduct of England ;
and, after the revolution was over, if you
could not live under the new government,
to send you out of the country. I will
add one thing more, which, although it is
not an answer to your question, you may
have a curiosity to hear. In such a
struggle it was natural to expect confis-
cations. Our intention was, that every
wife who had not instigated her husband
to resistance should be provided for out of
the property, notwithstanding confisca-
tions ; and every child who was too young
to be his own master, or form his own
opinion, was to have a child’s portion.
Your lordships will now judge how far
we intended to be cruel.

“ Lord Chancellor. — Pray, Mr. Emmet,
what caused the late insurrection ?

I “ Emmet. — The free quarters, the house-

burnings, the tortures, and the military
executions in the counties of Kildare,
Carlow, and Wicklow.

“ Lord Chancellor. — Don’t you think the
arrests of the 12th of March caused it?

“ Emmet. — No ; but I believe if it had
not been for those arrests it would not
have taken place ; for the people, irritated
by what they suffered, had been long
pressing the executive to consent to an
insurrection; but they had resisted or
eluded it, and even determined to perse-
vere in the same line. After these arrests,
however, other persons came forward who
were irritated and thought differently,
who consented to let that partial insur-
rection take place.”

On the 21st of May, Lord Castlereagh,
by direction of the Lord-Lieutenant,
wrote to the Lord Mayor of Dublin to
inform him that there was a plan for
seizing the city, and recommending pre-
cautions. The next day his lordship
presented a message to the House of
Commons to the same effect, and a loyal
address was presented in reply. Great
preparations for defence were now made
in Dublin. Various civic bodies armed
themselves in haste, and placed them-
selves at the service of the authorities.
Among these was the Lawyers’ Corps,
which showed great zeal on the occasion ;
and amongst the members of that body we
find the name of a young lawyer who had
very lately been called to the bar— Daniel
O’Connell.

It was now impossible to prevent the
rising. The United Irishmen of Leinster,
though thus left without leaders, had got
their instructions for action on the 23rd
of May; and, besides, they felt that no re-
verse of fortune in the open field could be
worse than what they were now suffering.

It appears that the plan of attack
formed by Lord Edward Fitzgerald had
been communicated to most of the insur-
gents ; for their first open acts of hostility,
though apparently fortuitous, irregular,
and confused, bore evident marks of a
deep-laid scheme for surprising the mili-
tary by separate, though simultaneous
attacks, to surround in a cordon the city
of Dublin, and cut off all succours and
resources from without. On that day
(May 23rd) Mr. NeUson* and some others

* Mr. Neilson was seized between nine and ten in
the evening, by Gregg, the keeper of Newgate, as
he was reconnoitering the prison. A scuffle ensued,
and Neilson snapped a pistol at him ; by the inter-
vention of two yeomen he was secured and com-
mitted. It is reported, and appears probable, that
a large number of the conspirators who were
awaiting his orders, having lost their leader, dis-
persed for that night.

HISTORY OF IRELAND,

277

•of the leaders were arrested ; and the city
and county of Dublin were proclaimed
by the Lord-Lieutenant and Council in
a state of insurrection ; the guards at the
Castle and all the great objects of attack
were trebled ; and, in fact, the whole city
was converted into a besieged garrison.
Thus the insurgents were unable to effect
anything by surprise. Without leaders,
and almost without arms or ammunition,
they ventured on the bloody contest,
Notwithstanding the apparent forward-
ness of the North, the first commotions
appeared in different parts of Leinster.
The Northern and Connaught mail coaches
were stopped by parties of the insurgents
on the night of the 23rd of May ; and, at
about twelve o’clock on the morning of
the 24th, a large body of insurgents at-
tacked the town and jail of Naas, about
fourteen miles from Dublin, where Lord
Gosford commanded. As the guard had
been seasonably increased, in expectation
of such an attack, the assailants were
repulsed and driven into a narrow avenue,
where, without order or discipline, they
sustained for some time the attack of the
Armagh militia, and of the fencible corps
raised by Sir Watkin William Wynne,
and known by the name of the Ancient
Britons. The King’s troops lost two
officers and about thirty men ; and the
insurgents, as was reported, lost 140 in
the contest and their flight. They were
completely dispersed, and several of them
taken prisoners. On the same day, a
small division of His Majesty’s forces
were surprised at the town of Prosper-
ous ; and a detachment at the village of
Clane cut their way through to Naas,
with considerable loss. About the same
time. General Dundas encountered a large
body of insurgents on the hills near Kil-
cullen, and 130 of them were left dead
upon the field.

On the following day, a body of about
400 insurgents, under the command of
two gentlemen of the names of Ledwich
and Keough, marched from Rathfarnham,
in the neighbourhood of Dublin, along
the foot of the mountain towards Belgatt
and Clondalkin. In their progress, they
were met by a party of thirty-five dra-
goons, under the command of Lord Roden.
After some resistance, the insurgents
were defeated, great numbers were killed
and wounded, and their leaders — Ledwich
and Keough — were taken. They were
immediately tried by a court-martial,
and executed.

Although the first effort of the insur-
gents had been thus defeated, still they
entertained the most sanguine hopes of
succeeding in another attempt. General

Lake, who, upon the resignation of Sir
Ralph Abercrombie, had been appointed
Commander-in-Chief, published the fol-
lowing notice on the morning of the 24th
of May : —

“Lieutenant-General Lake, command-
ing His Majesty’s forces in this kingdom,
having received from His Excellency the
Lord-Lieutenant, full powers to put down
the rebellion, and to punish rebels in the
most summary manner by martial law,” &c.

On the same morning, the Lord-Mayor
of Dublin issued a proclamation to this
effect : —

“ Whereas, the circumstances of the
present crisis demand every possible pre-
caution, these are, therefore, to desire all
persons who have registered arms forth-
with to give in (in writing) an exact list
or inventory of such arms at the Town
Clerk’s office, who will file and enter the
same in a book to be kept for that pur-
pose , and all persons who have not regis-
tered their arms are hereby required
forthwith to deliver up to me, or some
other of the magistrates of this city, all
arms and ammunition of every kind in
their possession ; and if, after this pro-
clamation, any person having registered
their arms shall be found not to have
given in a true list or inventory of such
arms ; or if any person who has not re-
gistered shall be found to have in their
power or possession any arms or ammuni-
tion whatever, such person or persons
will, on such arms being discovered, be
forthwith sent on board His Majesty’s
navy, as by law directed.

“ And I do hereby desire that all house-
keepers do place upon the outside of their
doors a list of all persons in their respec-
tive houses, distinguishing such as are
strangers from those who actually make
part of their family; but as there may
happen to be persons who, from pecuniary
embarrassments are obliged to conceal
themselves, I do not require such names
to be placed on the outside of the door,
provided such names are sent to me. And
I hereby call upon all His Majesty’s sub-
jects within the County of the City of
Dublin immediately to comply with this
regulation, as calculated for the public
security ; as those persons who shall will-
fully neglect a regulation so easy and
salutary, as well as persons giving false
statements of the inmates of their houses,
must, in the present crisis, abide the con-
sequences of such neglect.”

Parliament, being then in session, met
as usual, and Lord Castlereagh presented
to the House of Commons a message
from the Lord - Lieutenant, that he
thought it his indispensable duty, with

278

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

the advice of the Privy Council, under
the present circumstances of the king-
dom, to issue a proclamation, which he
had ordered to he laid before the
House of Commons, to whom he re-
marked, the time for speaking was now
gone and that period at last come when
deeds and not words were to show the dis-
positions of members of that House, and
of every man who truly valued the Con-
stitution of the land, or wished to maintain
the laws, and protect the lives and pro-
perties of His Majesty’s subjects. Every-
thing which courage, honour, fortune,
could offer in the common cause was now
called for. The rebels had openly thrown
off the mask, &c., &c.

Open war having now been fairly com-
menced, the Government proceeded to
the strongest measures of coercion. Al-
though by no public official act were the
picquetings, stranglings, floggings, and
torturings, to extort confessions, justified
or sanctioned, yet it is universally knoAvn,
that under the very eye of Government,
and Avith more than their tacit permission,
were these outrages practised. In men-
tioning the Irish GoA^ernment, it is not
meant that this system proceeded from
its Chief Governor; it Avas boasted to
have been extorted from him. And to
this hour it is not only defended and jus-
tified, but panegyrized by the advocates
and creatures of the furious drivers of
that system of terrorism.

So far from their being any doubt of the
existence of any such practices a short
time previous to and during the rebellion.
Sir Richard MnsgraA^e has, in an addi-
tional appendix to his memoirs of the
different rebellions in Ireland, given to
the public his observations upon Avhipping
and free quarters. He admits, indeed,
that whosoever considers it abstractedly,
must, of course, condemn it as obviously
repugnant to the letter of the laAv, the
benign principles of our Constitution,
and those of justice and humanity; but
he Avas convinced that such persons as
dispassionately considered the existing
circumstances, and the pressure of the
occasion under Avhich it Avas adopted,
would readily admit them to be, if not an
excuse, at least an ample extenuation of
that practice. “ Suppose,” says he, “the
fullest information could have been ob-
tained of the guilt of every individual, it
would have been impracticable to arrest
and commit the multitude. Some men of
discernment and fortitude perceived that
that some neAv expedient must be adopted
to prevent the subversion of Government,
and the destruction of society ; and whip-
ping was resorted to.

“As to the violation of the forms of
the laAV by this practice, it should be
recollected the law of nature, which sug-
gested the necessity of it, supersedes all
positive institutions, as it is imprinted on
the heart of man for the preservation of
his creatures, as it speaks strongly and
instinctively, and as its end Avill be baffied
by the sloAvness of deliberation.

“ When the sAvord of civil Avar is draAvn,
the laAvs are silent. As to the violation
of humanity, it should be recollected that
nothing could exceed the cruelty of this
banditti ; that their object was the extir-
pation of the loyalists ; that of the whip-
pers, the preservation of the community
at large.

“This practice Avas never sanctioned
by Government, as they, on the contrary,
used their utmost exertions to prevent it ;
and the evidence extorted from the person
Avhipped never Avas used to convict any
person, and was employed for no other
reason but to discover concealed arms,
and to defeat the deleterious schemes of
the traitors. Free quarters Avere confined
merely to the proAunce of Leinster.

“When GoA-ernment aa’us possessed of
the evidence that the inhabitants of a
village or a toAvn, who had taken the
usual oaths to lull and deceive the magi-
strates, AA^ere possessed of concealed arms,
and meditated an insurrection and mas-
sacre, they sent amongst them a certain
number of troops, Avhom they Avere obliged
to maintain by contributions levied on
themselves. This took place a feAv days
before the rebellion broke out.

“ It has been universally alloAved that
the military severities practised in the
county of Kildare occasioned a premature
explosion of the plot, which the Directory
intended to have deferred till the French
effected a landing ; and one of them, Mr.
Emmet, declared in his evidence, upon
oath, before the Secret Committee of the
Lords, that, but for the salutary effects
of those military severities, there would
have been a very general and formidable
insurrection in every part of the country.”

This Avarm advocate for the torture has
not with his usual minuteness favoured
his reader Avith any instances of innocent
persons having undergone this severe trial
from wanton suspicion, personal reA'enge,
or malevolent cruelty. Yet many such
there Avere ; as must necessarily be the
case, Avhere the very cast of a countenance
that displeased a corporal or common
yeoman sufficed to subject the unfortunate
passenger to this military ordeal. No
man can give credit to the assertion, that
Government used their utmost exertions to
prevent it, who knows anything of the

HISTORY OP IRELAND.

279

state of Ireland at that disastrous period.
In Beresfjrd’s Riding House, Sandys’
Prevot, the Old Custom House, the
Royal Exchange, some of the barracks,
and other places in Dublin, there were
daily, hourly, notorious exhibitions of
these torturings, as there also were in
.almost every town, village, or hamlet
throughout the kingdom, in which troops
were quartered.*

Many attacks were made by the rebels
on the second day of the rebellion (the
24th of May), generally with ill- success ;
the chief of which were those of Carlow,
Hacketstown, and Monastereven. There
were also several skirmishes near Rath-
farnham, Taliagh, Lucan, Luske, Dun-
boyne, Barretstown, Collon, and Baltin-
glass. At Dunboyne and Barretstown
the insurgents are allowed to have had
the advantage. But in all the other
encounters, though greatly superior in
numbers, they were defeated, with in-
credible loss of their men.

The non-arrival of the mail-coach at
the usual hour of eight o’clock in the
morning at Carlow, was to be the signal
for rising there and its vicinity. This
town lies about forty miles southwest of
Dublin. Of the intended attack the
garrison was apprised by an intercepted
letter, and from Lieutenant Roe, of the
North Cork militia, who had observed the
peasants assembling in the vicinity late in
the evening of the 24th of May. The
garrison consisted in the whole of about
four hundred and fifty men, commanded
by Colonel Mahon of the Ninth Dra-
goons, and they were very judiciously
posted for the reception of the assailants.
A body, perhaps amounting to a thousand
or fifteen hundred, having assembled be-
fore the house of Sir Edward Crosbie, a
mile and a half distant from Carlow,
marched into the town at two o’clock in
the morning on the 25th of May, in a very
unguarded and tumultuary manner, shout-
ing as they rushed into Tullow Street,
with vain confidence, that the town was
their own : they received so destructive a
fire from the garrison, that they recoiled
and endeavoured to retreat ; but finding
their flight intercepted, numbers took
refuge in the houses, which were immedi-
ately fired by the soldiery. About eighty
houses, with some hundred men, were
consumed in this conflagration. As about

*It is too large a credit to be allowed to this
author’s assertion, that the evidence extorted from
the person whipped never was used to convict any
person. If the security of the monarch is to be
found in the affectionate hearts of his people, it is
matter of important consideration how far these
practices tended more to unite or separate the two
kingdoms.

half this column of assailants had arrived
within the town, and few escaped from
that situation, their loss can hardly be
estimated at less than four hundred ;
while not a man was even wounded on the
side of the King’s troops.

After the defeat, executions commenced
here, as they did elswhere in this calami-
tous period, and about two hundred, in a
short time, were hanged or shot, according
to martial law. Amongst the earliest
victims was Sir Edward Crosbie, before
Avhose house the rebel column had as-
sembled, but who certainly had not
accompanied them in their march; he
was condemned and shot as a United
Irishman. Sir Edward Crosbie had no
further connection with the rebels than
that they exercised on a lawn before the
house, which of course Sir Edward could
not prevent.

In the attack upon Slane, a mere
handful of troops, about seventeen yeo-
men and forty of the Armagh militia,
although surprised in the houses on which
they were billetted, fought their way
separately to their rallying post, and then
made so vigorous a stand, that some hun-
dreds of the people were with considerable
slaughter repulsed. Several of the assail-
ants of this small town appeared dressed in
the uniforms of the Cork Militia and
Ancient Britons ; which appearance in this
and several other instances, proved a fatal
deceit to the King’s troops. They were the
spoils taken at Prosperous ; at which place
the success of the insurgents, amongst
other causes, was owing to their hav-
ing been headed or led on to the attack
by an officer ; as their defeats in most
other places, with immense superiority of
numbers, were to be attributed to the
want of some intelligent person to control
and direct them. Their discomfitures in
general were not the effect of fear or
cowardice, but of want of discipline and
organization.

Kildare County was not favourable to
the insurgents, because it is generally a
flat, grassy plain, where regular cavalry
can act with terrible effect. Two weeks
were sufficient to crush all insurrection-
ary movements in that county, and in
Meath and Carlow. Yet in that short
campaign splendid feats of gallantry were
achieved by the half-armed peasantry.
At Monastereven the insurgents were re-
pulsed with some loss, the defenders of
the place being in part “loyal” Catholics,
commanded by one Cassidy. At Old
Kilcullen the insurgents defeated and
drove back the advance-guard of General
Dundas, with the loss of twenty-two regu-
lar soldiers, including a Captain Erskine.

280

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

But after the first few days, there was in
reality no insurrection at all in Kildare
County ; and the operations of the troops
there, though called sometimes “ battles,”
were nothing but onslaughts on disarmed
fugitives — in other words, massacres.
These proceedings were hailed with
triumph in Dublin, as great military
achievements. For example, the slaughter
of the unresisting, capitulated people at
the Gibbet Kath of Kildare, was regarded
as a vigorous measure which the emer-
gencies of the time required. The rebels,
according to Sir K. Musgrave, amounted
to about 3000 in number ; they had en-
tered into terms with General Dundas,
and were assembled at a place that had
been a Danish fort, called the Gibbet
Eath. Having offered terms of submis-
sion to General Dundas on the 26th of
May, that General dispatched General
Welford to receive their arms and grant
them protection. Before the arrival of
the latter, however, on the 3rd of June,
the multitude of unresisting people were
suddenly attacked by Sir James Duff,
who, having galloped into the plain,
disposed his army in order of battle,
and with the assistance of Lord Koden’s
fencible cavalry, fell upon the as-
tonished multitude, as Sir Kichard
Musgrave states, “ pell mell.” Three
hundred and fifty men, under term of
capitulation, admitted into the King’s
peace and promised his protection, were
mowed down in cold blood, at a place
known to every peasant in Kildare as
“ the Place of Slaughter,” as well re-
membered as Mullaghmast itself, the
Gibbet Rath of the Curragh of Kildare.

The massacre took place on the 3rd of
June ; the terms of surrender were made
by one Perkins, a rebel leader, on the part
of the insurgents, and General Dundas,
on the part of the Government, and with
its express sanction and permission for
them, on delivering up their arms, to
return to their homes. Their leader and
his brother were to be likewise pardoned
and set at liberty.

It was when the people were assembled
at the appointed place, to comply with
these conditions, that Sir James Duff, at
the head of 600 men, then on his march
from Limerick, proceeded to the place to
procure the surrendered weapons. One
of the insurgents, before giving up his
musket, discharged it in the air, barrel
upwards; this simple act was immediately
construed into a hostile proceeding, and
the troops fell on the astonished multi-
tude, and the latter fled with the utmost
precipitation, and were pursued and
slaughtered without mercy by a party

of fencible cavalry, called “Lord Joce-
lyn’s Foxhunters.” According to the
Rev. James Gordon, upwards of 200
fell on this occasion ; Sir R. Musgrave
states 350.

“ No part of the infamy of this pro-
ceeding,” says Dr. Madden, “attaches
to General Dundas. The massacre took
place without his knowledge or his
sanction. His conduct throughout the
rebellion was that of a humane and
brave man.”

The brutal massacre on the Curragh is
thus described by Lord Camden, the
Lord-Lieutenant, in his dispatch to the
Duke of Portland : —

“Dublin Castle, May 29tu.

“ My Lord, — I have only time to in-
form your grace, that I learn from Gene-
ral Dundas that the rebels in the Curragh
of Kildare have laid down their arms, and
delivered up a number of their leaders.

“By a dispatch I have this instant
received, I have the further pleasure of
acquainting your grace that Sir James
Duff, who, with infinite alacrity and ad-
dress, has opened the communication with
Limerick, (that with Cork being already
open,) had arrived at Kildare whilst the
rebels had possession of it, completely
routed them and taken the place.

“ I have the honour to be, &c.,

“ Camden.”

The same transaction is thus described
by the chief actor : —

Extract of a letter from Major- General Sir

James Duff to Lieutenant- General Lake,

dated Monastereven.

“ I marched from Limerick on Sunday
morning with sixty dragoons, Dublin
militia, three field pieces, and two curri-
cle guns, to open the communication with
Dublin, which I judged of the utmost im-
portance to Government. By means of
cars for the infantry, I reached this place
in forty-eight hours. I am now, at seven
o’clock this morning (Tuesday), march-
ing to surround the town of Kildare, the
headquarters of the rebels, with seven
pieces of artillery, 150 dragoons, and 350
infantry, determined to make a dread-
ful example of the rebels. I have left
the whole country behind me perfectly
quiet and well protected by means of
the troops and yeomanry corps.

“ I hope to be able to forward this to
you by the mail coach, which I will escort
to Naas. I am sufficiently strong. You
may depend on my prudence and success.
My guns are well manned, and all the
troops in high spirits. The cruelties the
rebels have committed on some of the

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

281

officers and men have exasperated them
to a great degree. Of my future opera-
tions I will endeavour to inform you.

“ P.S.— Kildare, two o’clock, p.m.—
We found the rebels retiring from the
town on our arrival, armed ; we followed
them with the dragoons. I sent on some
of the yeomen to tell them, on laying
down their arms, they should not be hurt.
Unfortunately, some of them fired on
the troops ;* from that moment they
were attacked on all sides — nothing could
stop the rage of the troops. I believe from
two to three hundred of the rebels were
killed. We have three men killed and
several wounded. I am too much fatigued
to enlarge.”

There is no need to recount in detail
the various slaughters done by the troops,
sometimes upon armed insurgents, some-
times upon mere masses of unarmed
people. These were all commemorated
indifferently by Lord Camden in his des-
patches as “ battles,” “ defeats of the
rebels,” and the like. One of his des-
patches describes the most serious part of
the rising in Wicklow County : —

“Dublin Castle, May 2Gth, 10a.m.

“ My Lord, — I have detained a packet,
in order to transmit to your grace the in-
formation received this morning.

“I have stated in a private letter to
your grace, that a party of the rebels, to
the amount of several hundreds, were
attacked by a detachment of the Antrim
Militia, a small party of cavalry, and
Captain Stratford’s yeomanry ; and that,
being driven into the town of Baltinglass,
they lost about 150 men.

“ This morning an account has been
received from Major Hardy, that yester-
day a body of between 3000 and 4000
had collected near Dunlavin, when they
were entirely defeated, with the loss of
300 men, by Lieutenant Gardner, at the
head of a detachment of Antrim Militia,
and Captain Hardy’s and Captain Hume’s
yeomanry.

“ The troops and yeomanry behaved
with the utmost gallantry in both actions.”

On the same 26th of May another
slaughter took place on Tara Hill, in

* Plowden describes the affair thus : As the

troops advanced near the insurgents to receive
their surrendered weapons, one of the latter,
foolishly swearing that he would not deliver his
gun otherwise than empty, discharged it with the
muzzle upwards.

Meath. Some chiefs of the Leinster in-
surgents had assembled at that point
where they expected to be joined by a
force coming from the North, They were
here attacked, and after an obstinate de-
fence, killing thirty-two of the soldiers
and yeomanry, they were again over-
powered, by discipline and superior arms.
The issue is told in this despatch : —

Extract of a letter from Captain Scohie, c f
the Reay Fencibles, to Lieutenant-General
Lake, dated Dunshaughlin, Sunday morn-
ing, May 27th, 1798.

“ The division, consisting of five com-
panies of His Majesty’s Reay Regiment of
Fencible Infantry, which I have the honour
to command, arrived here yesterday morn-
ing according to route, accompanied by
Lord Fingal’s troop of yeomen cavalry.
Captain Preston’s and Lower Kells’ troop
of cavalry, and Captain Molloy’s company
of yeomen infantry.

“ At half-past three p.m. I was informed
that a considerable force of the rebel
insurgents had taken station on Tara Hill.
I instantly detached three companies of
our division, with one field-piece, and the
above corps of yeomanry, to the spot,
under the command of Captain M‘Lean,
of the Reay’s, the issue of which has an-
swered my most sanguine expectation.

“ The rebels fied in all directions ; 350
were found dead on the field this morn-
ing, among whom is their commander in
full uniform ; many more were killed and
wounded.

“ Our loss is inconsiderable, being nine
rank and file killed, sixteen rank and file
wounded.”

On the whole, it must be admitted that
the troops found but little difficulty in
crushing the insurgent peasants of Kil-
dare, Dublin, and Meath. The slaughter
of the people was out of all proportion
with the resistance. The number of
deaths arising from torture or massacre,
where no resistance was offered during
the year 1798, forms the far greater por-
tion of the total number slain in this
contest. The words of Mr. Gordon are :
— “ I have reason to think more men than
fell in battle were slain in cold blood.
No quarter was given to persons taken
prisoners as rebels, with or without arms.” *
In the meantime, events still more
serious were taking place in Wexford
County.

* Gordon’s History of the Rebellion.

282

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

CIIArTER XXXIV.

1798.

AVexford a Peaceable Counttr. — Lord Castlereagh’s
Judicious Measures. — Catholics driven out of
Yeomanry Corps. — Treatment of Mr, Fitzgerald.
— United Irish in AVexford. — The Priests Oppose
that Society. — How they were Requited. — Miles
Byrne — Torture in AVexford. — Orangemen inAYex-
ford. — North Cork Militia. — Hay’s Account of the
Ferocity of the Alagistrates.' — Massacre of Car-
new.— Father John Murphy. — Burning of his
Chapel. — Miles Byrne’s Account of First Rising.
— Oulard. — Storm of Enniscorthy. — AA’exford
Evacuated by the King’s Troops — Occupied by
Insurgents. — All the County now in Insurrection.
Estimated numbers of Insurgents. — Population of
the County.

Wexford was one of the most peace-
able counties in Ireland. Protestants
and Catholics lived there in greater har-
mony than elsewhere ; and had united in
forming yeomanry corps for defence of
the country after the attempted invasion
under Iloche. The United Irish organi-
zation extended to that county as we
know from Miles Byrne ; but not with
such poAver as in Meath and Kildare, for
the very reason that the people were not,
up to that time, subjected to such intol-
erable oppression. In the first months of
1798, hoAvcA’er, everything Avas changed.
Orders Avere given from the Castle to
purify the yeomanry corps, by expelling
those Avho should not take an oath that
they Avere not United Irishmen. The
oath Avas to the effect that they Avere
neither United Irishmen nor Orangemen ;
but practically, the measure was so exe-
cuted as to disarm none but Catholics, or
such Protestants as Avere knoAvn to be
liberal in their opinions, like Antony
Perry, of Inch. INliles Byrne (the per-
sonal memoir of this gallant officer Avas
published only in 18G3^ gives several
examples : —

“White, of Bally-Ellis, raised a foot
corps, and got great praise from the Go-
vernment, as he had it equipped and
armed when Hoche’s expedition came to
Bantry Bay in 1796.

“ If this corps Avas one of the first that
Avas ready to march, it Avas also one of the
first to be disbanded and disarmed, for it
Avas composed principally of Catholics,
though the officers Avere Protestants.

“ The corps of yeomanry cavalry, com-
manded by Beaumont, of Hyde Park, in
which Antony Perry, of Inch, or Perry
Mount, and Ford, of Ballyfad, were
officers, refused to take any oath respect-
ing their being Orangemen or United
Irishmen ; at the same time they resolved
not to resign, but to continue their service

as usual. Soon after, the corps was
ordered to assemble, Avhen a regiment of
militia Avas in \vaiting, and the suspected
members Avere surrounded and disarmed ;
that is to say, all the Catholics, Avhich
s Avere about one-half of the corps, Avith
if Perry and one or two other Protestants,
being considered too liberal to make part
g of a corps that was henceforward to be
- upon the true Protestant, or Orange
B system.”

■ Edward Fitzgerald, of Noav Park, gives
a sample of the proceedings which Avere

i carried on throughout the county from
^ the moment of the formidable proclama-
f tion of martial law. He Avrites (See
Maddeii) : —

“ Upon the 28th of April, 1978, my

■ house, offices, and grounds, which are
5 A-ery considerable, Avere taken possession

■ of by 120 cavalry and infantry, and 12
i officers, who possessed themselves of all
' kinds of property Avithin and Avithout, and
L what they could not consume sent to Athy

■ barracks. They continued in possession
' about thirty days, until the press of the

times oblged them to change their posi-
' tion. Upon the approach of the military,
my wife and family, of course, were
obliged to fly my habitation, without the
shortest prevdous intimation, and I Avas
sent, under a military escort, to Dublin,
i where, after an arrest of ninety-one days,

I Avas liberated, Avithout the slightest
. specific charge of any kind. At the time
: of my arrest, I commanded as respectable
a corps of cavalry as any in the kingdom,

• containing fifty-six in number, and not
the slightest impropriety was ever at-
tached to any of its members. From the
time the military possessed themseHes of
my residence, the most iniquitous enor-
mities were everyivhere practised upon
the people of the country ; their houses
plundered, their stock of all kinds seized,
driven to the barracks, and sold by auc-
tion ; their persons arrested, and sentenced
to be flogged, at the arbitrary Avill of the
most despicable Avretches of the com-
munity. A man of the name of Thomas
James EaAvson, of the loAvest order, the
offal of a dunghill, had every person tor-
tured and stripped, as his cannibal will
directed. He Avould seat himself on a
chair in the centre of a ring formed
around the triangles, the miserable victims
kneeling under the triangle until they would
he spotted over with the blood of the others.
People of the name of Cronin were thus
treated. He made the father kneel under
the son while flogging, the son under the
father, &c.”

Why such a demoniac system was in-
troduced amongst a peaceful people —

IIISTOKY Ol-' IRELAND.

28o

save to goad them into revolt — it is quite
impossible to comprehend. Thousands
of men who had avoided the United
Irish Society before, now began to
join it. The priests were still counsel-
ling patience and submission, and doing
all in their power to make the people
deliver up their pikes and other weapons.
Miles Byrne says: — “The priests did
everything in their power to stop the pro-
gress of the association of United Irish-
men, particularly poor Father John Red-
mond, who refused to hear the confession
of any of the United Irish, and turned
them away from his knees. He was ill-
requited afterwards for his great zeal and
devotion to the enemies of his country ;
for after the insurrection was all over,
Earl Mountnorris brought him in a pri-
soner to the British camp at Gorey, with
a rope about his neck, hung him up to a
tree, and fired a brace of bullets through
his bod3^ Lord Mountnorris availed
himself of this opportunity to show his
* loyalty,’ for he was rather suspected on
account of not being at the head of his
corps when the insurrection broke out in
his neighbourhood. Both Redmond and
the parish priest, Father Frank Cava-
nagh, were on the best terms with Earl
iMountnorris, dining frequently with him
at his seat, Camelon Park, Avhich place
Father Redmond prevented being plun-
dered during the insurrection. This was
the only part he had taken intlie struggle.”
Various kinds of torture were now
habitually applied by the magistrates to
extort confession of the two great crimes
— having arms, or being United Irish,
and the merest suspicion, or pretence of
suspicion, was quite enough to cause a
man to be half-hanged, flogged almost to
death, or fitted with a pitch cap. Ed-
ward Hay gives a good general account of
the methods by which the Wexford people
were at last maddened to revolt : —

“ The Orange system made no public
appearance in the county of Wexford
until the beginning of April, on the arri-
val there of the North Cork militia, com-
manded by Lord Kingsborough. In this
regiment there were a great number of
Orangemen, who were zealous in making
proselytes and displaying their devices
— having medals and Orange ribbons
triumphantly pendant from their bosoms.
It is believed that previous to this period
there were but few actual Orangemen
in the county ; but soon after, those
whose principles inclined that way, find-
ing themselves supported by the mili-
tary, joined the association, and publicly
avowed themselves by assuming the de-
vices of the fraternity.

“ It is said that the North Cork regi-
ment were also the inventors (but they
certainly were the introducers) of pitch-
cap torture into the county of Wexford.
Any person having his hair cut short
(and, therefore, called a croppy, liy which
appellation the soldiery designated an
United Irishman), on being pointed out
by some loyal neighbour, was immedi-
ately seized and brought into a guard-
house, where caps, either of coarse linen
or strong brown paper, besmeared inside
with pitch, were always kept ready for
service. The unfortunate victim had one
of these, well heated, compressed on his
head, and when judged of a proper degree
of coolness, so that it could not be easily
pulled off, the sufferer was turned out
amidst the horrid acclamations of the
merciless torturers ; and to the view of
vast numbers of people, who generally
crowded about the guard-house door,
attracted by the cries of the tormented.
Many of those persecuted in this manner
experienced additional anguish from the
melted pitch trickling into their eyes.
This afforded a rare addition of enjoy-
ment to these keen sportsman, who re-
iterated their horrid yells of exultation
on the repetition of the several accidents
to which their game Avas liable from being
turned out , for, in the confusion and
hurry of escaping from the ferocious hands
of these more than savage barbarians, the
blinded victims frequently fell, or inad-
vertently dashed their heads against the
walls in their way. The pain of disen-
gaging this pitched cap from the head
must be next to intolerable. The hair
was often torn out by the roots, and
not unfrequently parts of the skin Avere
so scalded or blistered as to adhere
and come off along Avith it. The terror
and dismay that these outrages occa-
sioned are inconceivable. A sergeant
of the North Cork, nicknamed lorn the
Devil, was most ingenious in devising
neAV methods of torture. Moistened gun-
powder was frequently rubbed into the
hair cut close, and then set on fire. Some,
while shearing for this purpose, had the
tips of their ears snipped off. Some-
times an entire ear, and often both ears
Avere completely cut off ; and many lost
part of their noses during the like pre-
paration. But, strange to tell, these
atrocities were publicly practised without
the least reserve in open day, and no
magistrate or officer ever interfered, but
shamefully connived at this extraordinary
mode of quieting the people ! Some of
the miserable sufferers on these shocking
occasions, or some of their relations or
friends, actuated by a principle of retalia-

284

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

tion, if not of revenge, cut short the hair
of several persons, -whom they either con-
sidered as enemies, or suspected of having
pointed them out as objects for such des-
perate treatment.

“ This was done with a view that those
active citizens should fall in for a little
experience of the like discipline, or to
make the fashion of short hair so general
that it might no longer be a mark of
party distinction. Females were also
exposed to the grossest insults from these
military ruffians. Many women had their
petticoats, handkerchiefs, caps, ribbons,
and all parts of their dress that exhibited
a shade of green (considered the national
colour of Ireland), torn off, and their ears
assailed by the most vile and indecent
ribaldry. This was a circumstance so
unforeseen, and of course so little
provided against, that many women of
enthusiastic loyalty suffered outrage in
this manner.

“ The proclamation of the County of
Wexford having given greater scope to
the ingenuity of magistrates to devise
means of quelling all symptoms of re-
bellion, as well as of using every exertion
to procure discoveries, they soon fell to
the burning of houses wherein pikes, or
other offensive weapons, were discovered,
10 matter how brought there ; but they
lid not stop here, for the dwellings of
suspected persons, and those from which
any of the inhabitants were found to be
absent at night, were also consumed. The
circumstance of absence from the houses
very generally prevailed throughout the
country, although there were the strictest
orders forbidding it. This was occasioned
at first, as was before observed, from ap-
prehension of the Orangemen, but after-
wards proceeded from the actual experi-
ence of torture by the people from the
yeomen and magistrates. Some, too,
abandoned their houses for fear of being
whipped, if, on being apprehended, con-
fession satisfactory to the magistrates
could neither be given or extorted ; and
this infliction many persons seemed to
fear more than death itself. Many un-
fortunate men, who were taken in their
houses, were strung up, as it were to be
hanged, but w'ere let down now and then
to try if strangulation would oblige them
to become informers. After these and
the like experiments, several persons lan-
guished for some time, and at length per-
ished in consequence of them. Smiths and
carpenters, whose assistance was consider-
ed indispensable in the fabrication of pikes
were pointed out on evidence of their
trades as the first and fittest objects of
torture. But the sagacity of some magis-

trates became at length so acute, from
habit and exercise, that they discerned an
United Irishman even at the first glance !
And their zeal never suffered any person
whom they designed to honour with such
distinction to pass off without convincing
proof of their attention

“Mr. Hunter Go wan had for many
years distinguished himself by his activity
in apprehending robbers, for which he
was rewarded with a pension of £100 per
annum. Now exalted to the rank of a
magistrate, and promoted to be captain
of a corps of yeomanry, he was zealous in
his exertions to inspire the people about
Gorey with dutiful submission to the
magistracy and a respectful awe of the
yeomanry. On a public day in the week
preceding the insurrection, the town of
Gorey beheld the triumphal entry of Mr.
Gowan, at the head of his corps, with his
sword drawn and a human finger stuck
on the point of it.

“ With this trophy he marched into
the town, parading up and down the
streets several times, so that there was
not a person in Gorey who did not witness
this exhibition ; while in the meantime
the triumphant corps displayed all the
devices of Orangemen. After the labour
and fatigue of the day, Mr. Gowan and
his men retired to a public house to refresh
themselves, and, like true blades of game^
their punch was stirred about with the
finger that had graced their ovation,
in imitation of keen fox hunters, who
whisk a bowl of punch with the brush of
a fox before their boozing commences.
This captain and magistrate afterwards
went to the house of Mr. Jones, where
his daughters were, and while taking a
snack that w'as set before him, he bragged
of having blooded his corps that day, and
that they were as staunch blood-hounds
as any in the world. The daughters
begged of their father to show them the
croppy finger, which he deliberately took
from his pocket and handed to them.
Misses dandled it about with senseless
exultation, at which a young lady in the
room was so shocked that she turned
about to a window, holding her hand to
her face to avoid the horrid sight. Mr.
Gowan, perceiving this, took the finger
from his daughters, and archly dropped
it into the disgusted lady’s bosom. She
instantly fainted, and thus the scene
ended! ! !

“ Having spent Friday, the 25th of
May, with Mr. Turner, a magistrate of
the county, at Newfort, he requested me
to attend him next day at Newpark, the
seat of Mr. Fitzgerald, where, as the most
central place, he had appointed to meet

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

285

the people of the neighbourhood. I ac-
cordingly met him there on Saturday,
the 26th, where he continued the whole
day administering the oath of allegiance
to vast numbers of people. A certificate
was given to every person who took
the oath and surrendered any offensive
weapon. Many attended who offered to
take the oath, and also to depose that
they were not United Irishmen, and that
they possessed no arms of any kind
whatever, and earnestly asked for certi-
ficates. But so great was the concourse
of these, that, considering the trouble of
writing them out, it was found impossible
to supply them all with such testimonials
at that time. Mr. Turner, therefore,
continued to receive surrendered arms,
desiring such as had none to await a
more convenient opportunity. Num-
bers, however, still conceiving that they
would not be secure without a written
protection, offered ten times their in-
trinsic value to such as had brought
pike blades to surrender ; but these
being unwilling to forego the benefit of
a written protection for the moment,
refused to part with their weapons on
any other condition. Among the great
numbers assembled on this occasion were
some men from the village of Ballaghkeen,
who had the appearance of being more
dead than alive, from the apprehensions
they were under of having their houses
burned or themselves whipped should they
return home. These apprehensions had
been excited to this degree because that,
on the night of Thursday, the 24 th, the
Enniscorthy cavalry, conducted by Mr.
Archibald Hamilton Jacob, had come to
Ballaghkeen ; but, on hearing the ap-
proaching noise, the inhabitants ran out
of their houses, and fled into large brakes
of furze on a hill immediately above the
village, from whence they could hear the
cries of one of their neighbours, who was
dragged out of his house, tied up to a
thorn tree, and while one yeoman con-
tinued flogging him, another was throw-
ing water on his back. The groans of the
unfortunate sufferer, from the stillness of
the night, reverberated widely through the
appalled neighbourhood ; and the spot of
execution these men represented to have
appeared next morning ‘ as if a pig had

been killed.’ ”♦

On the 25th of May was perpetrated
the massacre of Carnew. A large number
of prisoners had been shut up in the jail
of that place, on suspicion of being guilty
of possessing arms, or of knowing some
one who possessed arms. These prisoners
were all taken out of the jail and
* Edward Hay.

deliberately shot in the Ball Alley, by the
yeomen and a party of the Antrim Militia,
in presence of their officers.'^

Father John Murphy was curate of
Monageer and Boolevogue. He was a
gentleman of learning and accomplish-
ments, having studied in the University of
Seville. He had now been resident several
years, quietly doing the sacred duties of
his calling, enjoying the esteem of all his
neighbours, and little dreaming that it
was to fall to his lot to head an insurrec-
tion. Miles Byrne, who knew him well,
narrates with much simplicity the story
of the good priest’s first act of war : —

“The Reverend John Murphy, of the
parish of Monageer and Boolevogue,
was a worthy, simple, pious man,
and one of those Roman Catholic
priests who used the greatest exertions
and exhortations to oblige the people
to surrender their pikes and fire-arms
of every description. As soon as the
cowardly yeomanry thought that all the
arms were given up, and that there was
no further risk, they took courage, and
set out, on Whit Saturday, the 26th of
May, 1798, burning and destroying all
before them. Poor Father John, seeing
his chapel and his house, and many others
of the parish, all on fire, and in several
of them the inhabitants consumed in the
flames, and that no man seen in coloured
clothes could escape the fury of the yeo-
manry, betook himself to the next wood,
where he was soon surrounded by the
unfortunate people who had escaped ; all
came beseeching his reverence to tell
them what was to become of them and their
poor families. He answered them ab-
ruptly, that they had better die courage-
ously in the field than be butchered in
their houses ; that, for his own part, if
he had any brave men to join him, he was
resolved to sell his life dearly, and prove
to those cruel monsters that they should
not continue their murders and devasta-
tions with impunity. All answered and
cried out that they were determined to
follow his advice, and to do whatever he
ordered. ‘Well, then,’ he replied, ‘we
must, when night comes, get armed the
best way we can, with pitch-forks and
other weapons, and attack the Camolen
Yeomen Cavalry on their way back to
Earl Mountnorris, where they will return
to pass the night, after satisfying their
savage rage on the defenceless country
people.’

“ Father John’s plan was soon put in
execution. He went to the high road
by which the corps was to return, left a
few men near a house, with instructions
* Hay, Madden.

286

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

to place two cars across the road the mo-
ment the last of the cavalry had passed,
and at a short distance from thence, half
a quarter of a mile, he made a complete
barricade across the highway, and then
placed all those brave fellows who followed
him behind a hedge along the road-side ;
and in this position he waited to receive
this famous yeomanry cavalry, returning
from being glutted rvith all manner of
crimes during this memorable day, the
26th of May, 1798.

“ About nine o’clock at night, this corps,
riding in great speed, encountered the
above-mentioned obstacle on the road,
and were at the same moment attacked
from front to rear by Father John and
liis brave men, with their pitch-forks.
The cavalry, after discharging their pis-
tols, got no time to reload them, or to
make much use of their sabres. In short,
they were literally lifted out of their
saddles, and fell dead under their horses’
feet. Lieutenant Booky, who had the
command in the absence of Earl Mount-
norris, was one of the first killed ; he was
a sanguinary villain, and it seemed a just
judgment that befell them all. But, be
that as it may. Father John and his men
were much elated with their victory, and
getting arms, ammunition, and horses by
it, considered themselves formidable, and
able at least to beat the cruel yeomanry
in every encounter. They marched at
once to Camolen Park, the residence of
Lord Mountnorris, where they got a great
quantity of arms of every description,
and which had been taken from the
country people for months before ; and
even the carbines belonging to the corps,
and which had not been distributed, wait-
ing the arrival of the Earl from Dublin.

“ During the night, and the next day,
Whit Sunday, the 27th of May, the people
flocked in to join Father John’s standard,
on hearing of his success ; and as soon as
the news was known in Gorey, the troops
took fright and abandoned the town, let-
ting the prisoners go where they pleased ;
but finding that Father John had marched
in another direction, they returned and
resumed their persecutions as before ;
they again arrested great numbers and
had them placed in the market-house
loft, ready to be butchered the moment
the insurgents made their appearance be-
fore the town. Poor Perry was amongst
the prisoners, and in a dreadful state,
having the skin as well as the hair
burned off his head. Esmond Cane was
arrested that day and made a prisoner.”

Father John might now have marched
into Wicklow County without much op-
position, “ but,’* continues Miles Byrne,

‘‘ he thought it would be more advisable
to raise the whole county of Wexford
first, and get possession of the prin-
cipal towns. In consequence of this
decision, on Whit Sunday, the 27th of
May, he marched with all his forces,
then amounting to four or five thou-
sand men, to Oulard Hill, a distance of
ten miles from Wexford, and five from
Enniscorthy. He encamped on this bill
for the purpose of giving an opportunity
to the unfortunate people who were hiding
to come and join him. He soon perceived
several corps of yeomanry cavalry in
sight, but all keeping at a certain distance
from the hill, waiting until the infantry
from Wexford arrived to make the first
attack.

“ Shortly after, he saw a large force on
the march, flanked by some cavalry, and
as soon as they began to mount the hill.
Father John assembled his men and
showed them the different corps of cavalry
that were waiting, he said, ‘ to see us dis-
persed by the foot troops, to fall on us and
to cut us in pieces ; but let us remain firm
together and we shall surely defeat the in-
fantry, and then we shall have nothing to
dread from the cavalry, as they are too
great cowards to venture into the action.’
All promised to conform to his instruc-
tions. ‘Well, then,’ he rejoined, ‘we
must march against the troops that are
mounting the hill, and when they are de-
ployed and ready to begin the attack, we
must retreat precipitately back to where
we are, and then throw ourselves down
behind this old ditch,’ pointing to a
boundary on the top of the hill. All his
instructions were executed as he had
ordered.

“ The King’s troops were commanded
by Colonel Foote and Major Lombard,
and as soon as they came within about
two musket-shots of the insurgents, they
deployed and prepared for action, but be-
came enraged when they saw the insur-
gents retreating back to the top of the
hill ; however, they followed quickly,
knowing that the hill was completly sur-
rounded by the several corps of yeomanry
cavalry, and that it was impossible for the
insurgents to escape before they came in
with them.

“ Father John allowed the infantry to
come within half musket-shot of the
ditch, and then a few men on each flank
and in the centre stood up, at the sight
of -which the whole line of infantry
fired a volley. Instantly, Father John
and all his men sallied out and at-
tacked the soldiers, who were in the
act of re-charging their arms ; and
although they made the best fight they

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

287

could with their muskets and bayonets,
they were soon overpowered and com-
pletely defeated by the pikemen, or rather
by the men with pitch-forks and other
weapons ; for very few had pikes at this
oattle, on account of having given them
ap by the exhortations and advice of the
^^riests.

“ Of this formidable expedition, which
was sent from Wexford on the 27th of
May to exterminate the insurgents, very-
few returned to bring the woeful tidings
of their defeat, and the glorious victory
obtained by the people over their cruel
tyrants. Of the North Cork party that
had been the scourge of the country for
several months previous, and so distin-
guished for making Orangemen, hanging,
picqueting, putting on pitch-caps, &c..
Major Lombard, the Honourable Captain
De Courcy, Lieutenants Williams, Ware,
Barry, and Ensign Keogh, with all the
privates but two, were left dead on the
field of battle. In short, none escaped
except Colonel Foote, a sergeant, a drum-
mer, and the two privates mentioned
above. The insurgents had but three
killed and five or six wounded. The
Shilmalier Cavalry, commanded by Col.
Lehunt, as well as the different corps of
cavalry that surrounded the hill during
the battle, and which did not take any
part in the action, in their precipitate
retreat to Wexford, Engiiscorthy, and
Gorey, shot every man they met on the
road, went to the houses, called the people
to their doors and put them to death ;
many who were asleep shared the same
fate, their houses being mostly burned.

“ Solomon Richards, commander of the
Enniscorthy Cavalry, and Hawtry White,
who commanded all the troops of cavalry
sent from Gorey to exterminate the
people, surpassed description. They little
thought, however, that for every one they
put to death in cold blood, they were send-
ing thousands to join the insurgent camp.

“ Father John and his little army now
became quite flushed with their last vic-
tory. Seeing the King’s troops flying
and escaping in every direction, they
were at a loss to know w-hich division
they should pursue ^ they, however (hav-
ing as yet no cavalry), marched from
Oulard Hill and encamped for the
night on Carrigrew Hill. Next morn-
ing, the 28th of May, at seven o’clock,
they marched to Camolen, and from thence
to Ferns. Not meeting with any of the
King’s troops in this town to oppose them,
and having learned that they had re-
treated to Gorey and to Enniscorthy,
Father J ohn resolved at once to attack
this last town, in order to afford a better

opportunity to the brave and unfortunate
country people to escape from their hid-
ing places and come and join his standard,
he and his little army crossed the Slaney
by the bridge at Scarawalsh ; and cer-
tainly this skilful manoeuvre or counter-
march had the happiest result ; for im-
mediately on crossing the river he was
joined by crowds.”

On their arrival before Enniscorthy,
the insurgents amounted to the number
of 7000 men, 800 of whom w-ere armed
with guns, which they had seized at
Camolen almost immediately after they
had been sent to that place by the Earl of
Mountnorris. About one o’clock on the
28th of May, Enniscorthy was attacked
by this vast multitude, and after a vigor-
ous defence by the comparatively small
garrison, was left in possession of the
insurgents The garrison retreated and
fell back on Wexford; they lost above
ninety of their men, and the town was on
fire in several places. They were attended
by a confused number of unfortunate
loyal inhabitants, but were not pursued
by the insurgents, who might have easily
cut off their retreat.

To disperse the insurgents, if possible,
without battle or concession, or perhaps to
divert their attention and retard their
progress, an expedient was essayed by
Captain Boyd, of the Wexford Cavalry.
This officer had, in consequence of a re-
quisition to that purpose of the sheriff
and other gentlemen, on the 25th and
27th, from information or suspicion of
treasonable designs, arrested Beauchamp
Bagenal Harvey, of Bargy Castle, John
Henry Colclough, of Ballyteigue, and
Edward Fitzgerald, of New Park, all
three respectable gentlemen of the county
of Wexford. Visiting them in prison on
the 29th, Captain Boyd agreed with these
gentlemen, that one of them should go to
the rebels at Enniscorthy, and endeavour
to persuade them to disperse and return
to their homes, but would not give
authority to promise any terms to the
insurgents in case of submission. Col-
clough, at the request of Mr. Harvey,
agreed to go on condition of his being
accompanied by Mr. Fitzgerald. On the
arrival of these two gentlemen at Ennis-
corthy, about four in the afternoon of
the same day, they found the insurgents
in a state of confusion, distracted in their
councils, and undetermined in any plan
operation ; some proposing to attack
Newtownbarry, others Ross, others Wex-
ford, others to remain in their present
posts ; the greater number to march
home for the defence of their houses
against Orangemen.

288

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

It was but the resolution of a moment
to march in a body to attack Wexford.
Mr. Fitzgerald they detained in the camp,
and Mr. "Colclough they sent back to an-
nounce their hostile intentions.

Mr. Colclough arrived in Wexford
early in the evening, and waited in the
Bull King (a small square in the town so
denominated) until the officers and other
gentlemen in the place had there assem-
bled, when he informed them, in a very
audible voice, from horseback, that hav-
ing gone out, according to directions, to
the insurgents on Vinegar Hill, he found
as he had already suggested before his
<leparture, that he possessed no influence
with the people, who had ordered him to
return and announce their determination
of marching to the attack of Wexford ;
adding that they had detained Mr. Fitz-
gerald. Mr. Colclough then requested to
be informed, if it were intended to make
further trial of his services, or require his
his longer attendance, as otherAvise they
must be sensible how eager he must be to
relieve the anxiety of his family by his
presence He was then entreated to en-
deavour to maintain tranquility in his
oAvn neighbourhood, which having pro-
mised to do, as much as m his power, he
called at the jail to visit Mr. Harvey,
with whom he had agreed (according to
the compact with Captain Boyd) to return
next day and take his place in the jail,
and then set off through the barony of
Forth, for his own dwelling at Bally-
teigue, distant about ten miles from
Wexford.

Early in the morning of the 29th, Col.
Maxwell, of the Donegal Militia, with tAvo
hundred men of his regiment and a six-
pounder, arrived in Wexford from Dun-
cannon Fort, despatched by General
Fawcett, Avho had been apprised of the
insurrection on the 27th, by Captain
Knox, an officer sent to escort Sergeant
Stanley, a judge of assize, on his way to
Munster. This reinforcement being in-
sufficient, an express was sent from the
Mayor of Wexford to the General, re-
questing an additional force; he expe-
ditiously returned with an exhilarating
answer, that the General himself Avould
commence his march for Wexford on the
same evening, from Duncannon, with the
Thirteenth Regiment, four companies of
the Meath Militia, and a party of artil-
lery with two howitzers. On the receipt
of this intelligence. Colonel Maxwell,
leaving the five passes into the toAvn
guarded by the yeomen and North Cork
Militia, took post with his men on the
Windmill Hill, above the town, at day-
break on the following morning, the 30th,

with the resolution to march against the
enemy on the arrival of General Faw-
cett’s army.

That General had marched according
to his promise on the evening of the 29th ;
but halting at Taghmon, seven miles from
Wexford, he had sent forward a detach-
ment of eighty-eight men, including
eighteen of the artillery, Avith the hoAvit-
zers, under the command of Captain
Adams, of the Meath Militia. This de-
tachment was intercepted early in the
morning of the 30th, by the insurgents,
under the Three Rocks, Avhich they had
occupied as a military station, being
about three miles from Wexford , the
hoAvitzers were taken and almost the
whole party slain.*

Colonel IMaxAvell, informed of the de-
struction of Captain Adams’ detach-
ment, by tAvo officers who had escaped
the slaughter, advanced immediately
Avith Avhat forces he could collect,
Avith design to retake the howitzers,
and co-operate Avith General Fawcett,
of whose retreat he had no suspicion,
but observing his left flank exposed by
the retreat of some of the Taghmon
cavalry, and the enemy making a motion
to surround him, he retired to Wexford,
Avith the loss of Lieutenant-Colonel Wat-
son killed, and tAvo privates wounded.

EA'erything noAv wore the aspect of a
gloomy, desperate consternation. Some
yeomen and supplementaries, posted
nearly opposite the jail were heard con-
tinually to threaten to put all the pri-
soners to death, Avhich so roused the
attention of the jailer to protect his
charge, that he barricaded the door, and
delivered up the key to Mr. Harvey.
Some magistrates Avere admitted to see
Mr. Harvey in the jail, and, at their most
urgent entreaties, he Avrote the following
notice to the insurgents : —

“ I have been treated in prison with all
possible humanity, and am now at liberty.
I have procured the liberty of all the
prisoners. If you pretend to Christian
charity, do not commit massacre, or burn
the property of the inhabitants, and spare
your prisoners’ Ih^es.

“B. B Hakvet.

“ Wednesday, May ^Oth, 1798.”

* The following official account Avas given of this-
affair : —

“Dublin Castle, June 2nd, 1798.

“ Accounts have been received from Major Gen-
eral Eustace, at Neiv Ross, stating that Major
General Fawcett having marched wdth a company
of the Meath regiment from Duncannon Fort,
this small force was surrounded by a very large
body between Taghmon and Wexford, and de-
feated. General Fawcett effected his retreat to-
Duncannon Fort."

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

289

Counsellor Richards, with his brother,
then undertook to announce the surrender
•of the town to the insurgents, whose
camp they reached in safety, though clad
in full uniform. Scarcely had these
deputies set out upon their mission, when
all the military corps, a part of the Wex-
ford infantry under Captain Hughes only
•excepted, made the best of their way out
of town in whatever direction they ima-
gined they could find safety, Avithout
acquainting their neighbours on duty of
their intentions. The principal inhabit-
ants, whose services had been accepted of
for the defence of the town, were mostly
Catholics, and, according to the prevalent
system, were subject to the greatest in-
sults and taunts. They were always
placed in front of the posts, and cautioned
to behave well, or that death should be
the consequence. Accordingly, persons
were placed behind to keep them to their
duty, and these were so watchful of their
■ charge, that they would not even permit
them to turn about their heads. Thus were
the armed inhabitants left at their post,
abandoned by their officers, and actually
ignorant of the flight of the soldiery,
until all impossible means of retreating
"u'ere cut off. Upon the approach of the
insurgents, the confusion and dismay
were excessive, the few remaining officers
and privates ran confusedly through the
town, threw off their uniforms, and hid
themselves wherever their fears suggested.
Some ran for boats to convey them off,
and threw their arms and ammunition
into the water. Some, from an insuffi-
ciency of men’s clothes, assumed female
attire for the purpose of disguise. Ex-
treme confusion, tumult, and panic were
everywhere exhibited. The North Cork
regiment, on quitting the barracks, had
set them on fire, but the fire was soon
after put out.

In the meantime, Mr. Richards having
arrived at the Three Rocks, made it
known to the insurgent chiefs, that they
were deputed to inform the people that
the town would be surrendered to them,
on condition of sparing lives and proper-
ties ; these terms, they were informed,
would not be complied with unless the
arms and ammunition of the garrison
were also surrendered. Mr, Loftus Rich-
ards Avas, therefore, detained as a hostage,
and Counsellor Richards and Mr, Fitz-
gerald were sent back to the town to
settle and arrange the articles of capitu-
lation. These gentlemen, on their arrival,
to their astonishment, found the place
abandoned by the military. A multitude
of insurgents Avas just ready to pour in
and take unconditional possession of the

toAvn. It Avas therefore thought necessary
to treat Avith them, in order to prevent
the consequences apprehended from such
a tumultuary influx of people. Dr. Jacob,
then Mayor of the town and Captain of
the Wexford Infantry, entreated Mr.
Fitzgerald to announce to the people
rushing in, that the tov/n Avas actually
surrendered ; and to use every argument
that his prudence might suggest to make
their entry as peaceable as possible. Mr.
Fitzgerald complied, and instantly after
this communication, thousands of people
poured into the town, over the wooden
bridge, shouting and exhibiting all the
marks of extravagant and victorious ex-
ultation. They first proceeded to the jail,
released all the prisoners, and insisted
that Mr, Harvey should become their
commander. All the houses in town, not
abandoned by the inhabitants, now became
decorated with green boughs, and other
emblematic symbols. The doors were
universally thrown open, and the most
liberal offers made of spirits and drink,
Avhich, however, were not as freely ac-
cepted, until the persons offering them
had first drank themselves, as a proof
that the liquor Avas not poisoned — a report
having prevailed to that effect.

The insurgents being in possession of
the town, several of the yeomen, having
throAvn off their uniforms, affected, with
all the signs and emblems of the United
Irishmen, to convince them of their un-
feigned cordiality and friendship; those
who did not throw open their doors with
offers of refreshment and accommodation
to the insurgents, suffered by jilunder,
their substance being considered as ene-
my’s property. The house of Captain
Boyd was a singular exception. It Avas,
though not deserted, pillaged.

Those troops who had fled from Wex-
ford signalized themselves in their re-
treat by plundering and devastating the
country ; by burning the cabins and
shooting the peasantry in their progress ;
and thus they augmented the number and
rage of the insurgents. These excesses
were seen from the insurgents’ station at
the Three Rocks, and it Avas Avith extreme
difficulty that the enraged multitude Avere
hindered by their chiefs from rushing
doAvn upon Wexford, and taking sum-
mary vengeance of the toAvn and its
inhabitants.

The Avhole county of Wexford Avas now
in open insurrection. Perhaps it Avould
be more correct to say that the people
had taken to the field because their
houses AA’ere mostly burned doAvn, and
had collected tlicinselves into masses,
Avith such poor arms as they had, for

T

290

IIISTOllY 01' IliELAND.

their common protection. The aggreg.ate
numbers of persons, -whether insurgents
or fugitives, with their crowds of women
and children, far exceeded the numbers
of fighting men that the county could
furnish. The population of Wexford at
that time did not much, if at all, exceed
one hundred and fifty thousand persons.*
The men Avho were properly of fighting
age, therefore, were not more than thirty
thousand. Sir Jonah Barrington has esti-
mated the whole number of those who
rose in this county at thirty-five thou-
sand ; but even to attain this amount,
there must have been counted many
thousands of old men, women, and chil-
dren, besides many thousands more who
were unarmed, or only half-armed. These
straggling multitudes, then, without camp
equipage, or accoutrements, or artillery
(except a few ship- guns, not mounted,
and some captured field-pieces), were now
committed to a desperate struggle against
the force of a powerful empire, Avell sup-
plied with ever}’thing, and led by veteran
generals. The only wonder to those who
read this narration will be, not that they
were finally overpowered, but that they
achieved such successes, as for a time
they certainly did. If the other thirty-
one counties had done as Acell as Wex-
ford, there would have been that year an
end to British dominion.

CHAPTER XXXV
1798.

Camp on Vinegar Hill. — Actions at Ballycannoo. —
At Newtownbarry. — Tubberneeiing. — Fall of
Walpole. — Two Columns. — Bagenal Harvey
Commands Insurgents. — Summons New Ross to
Surrender. — Battle of New Ross.— Slaughter of
Pri.'oners. — Retaliation. — Scullabogue. — Bagenal
Harvey Shocked by affair of Scullabogue. —
Resigns Command. — Father Philip Roche General.

■ — Fight at Arklow. — Claimed as a Victory by
Ki rg’s Troops. — Account of it by Miles Bryne. —
The Insurgents Execute some Loyalists in Wex-
ford Town. — Dixon. — Retaliation. — Proclamation
by People of Wexford.” — Lord Kingsborough a
prisoner. — Troops Concentrated round Vinegar
Hill. — Battle of Vinegar Hill. — Enniscorthy and
^^■exford Recovered. — Military Executions. —
Ravage of the Country. — Chiefs Executed in
Wexford. — Treatment of Women. — Outrages in
the North of the County. — Fate of Father John
Murphy’s Column. — Of Antony Perry’s. — Combat
at Ballyellis. — Miles Bryne’s Account of it. —
Extermination of Ancient Britons. — Character of
Wexford Insurrection. — Got up by the Govern-
ment.

Vv'iHLE the insurgents Avore holding the
town of Wexford, two hirgc “ encamp-
ments ” of them were formed, one at

* In 1S41. it was •20-2,030. In 1801, it was 180,159.
—Thom's Almanac.

Carrigrew Hill, the other at Carrick-
byrne, within six miles of the town of
New Ross, situated on the large river-
Nore, and commanding the main passage
into the county of Kilkenny. Their
principal head-quarters was still at
Vinegar Hill, close by Enniscorthy, situ-
ated on the Slaney. They made some-
rough entrenchments round this hill, and
placed a few guns in position there. They
then stationed a large garrison in the
town, Avhich was relieved every day by
a fresh party from the camp. Such great
numbers of the exasperated of the people
from the adjacent country flocked to their
camp that it soon consisted of at least
ten thousand men, women, and children.
They posted strong picket-guards, sen-
tinels, and videttes in all the avenues
leading to the tOAvn, and for some miles
round it. They then proceeded to destroy
the interior of the church of Enniscorthy.*
A body of more than one thousand in-
surgents, in advancing toivards Gorey,.
on the 1st of June, had taken possession
of a small village called Ballycannoo,
four miles to the south of Gorey, and
were proceeding to take possession of an
advantageous post called Ballymanaan
Hill, midway between the village and
the town, when they Avere met by the
Avhole of the small garrison of Gorey,
and by a steady and Avell-directed fire
the people Avere soon completely routed.
This victorious band, on their return to
Gorey, fired most of the houses at Bally-
cannoo, and entered the tOAvn in triumph,
Avith one hundred horses and other spoil
AA'hich they had taken. In this, as in
every other engagement at the beginning
of the rebellion, the insurgents elevated
their guns too much for execution, Avhich
accounts for the paucity of the slain
on the part of the King’s troops. On
this occasion three only Avere Avounded,
and none kilk-.l. The insurgents are
said to have lost above three score. f

* This Avas done strictly in retaliation for the
buniing and wrecking of Cathode chapels. There
Avere, on the Avhole, sixty-nine Catholic chapels
destroyed during the insurrection ; more than thirty
in Wexford alone. — Tlowden.

t The lieA'. Mr. Gordon recounts [page 136] an
occurrence after the battle, of Avhich his son AA*as a
Avitness, Avhich greatly illustrates the state of the
country at that time: “Tavo yeomen, coming to a
brake or clump of bushes, and observing a small
motion, as if some persons Avere hiding there, one
of them fired into it, and the shot was ansAA-ered by
a most piteous and loud shriek of a child _ The
other yeoman Avas then urged by his companion to
lire ; but he, being a gentleman, and less ferocious,
instead of firing commanded the concealed persons
to appear, Avhen a poor Avoman and eight children,
almost naked, one of Avhom Avas seA'erely Avounded,
came trembling from the brake, Avhere they had
I secreted themselA-es for safety.”

IIISTOKY OF lUELAND.

291

This success, coupled with that at New-
townbarry, gave a momentary check to the
ardour of the people. A party fromVinegar
Hill surrounded this latter town in such a
manner that Colonel L’Estrange at first
abandoned it. After a retreat of about a
mile, he yielded to the solicitations of
Lieutenant-Colonel Westenra, and suffer-
ed the troops to be led back to the suc-
cour of a few determined loyalists, who had
remained in the town, and continued a
fire from some houses. This accidental
manoeuvre had all the advantages of a
preconcerted stratagem. The insurgents
who had rushed into the street in a con-
fused multitude, totally unapprehensive
of the return of the troops, were unpre-
pared, and driven out of the town with
the loss of about two hundred men.*

On advice received at Newtownbarry of
the attack intended by the insurgents, an
express had bceen sent to Clonegall, two
miles and a half distant, ordering the
troops posted there to march immediately
to Newtownbarry. The commander of
these troops. Lieutenant Young, of the
Donegal Militia, instead of marching im-
mediately, spent two hours in hanging
four prisoners, in spite of the urgent re-
monstrance of an officer of the North
Cork, who considered these men as not
deserving death — some of them having
actually declined to join the insurgents
when it was fully in their power. By this
delay, and an unaccountable circuitous
march — three miles longer than the direct
road — the troops did not arrive at New-
townbarry till after the action was entirely
over. Mr, Young, on his arrival at Clone-
gall, had commanded the inhabitants to
furnish every individual of his soldiers
with a feather bed, and had, without the
least necessity, turned Mr. Derenzy, a
brave and loyal gentleman, and his chil-
dren, out of their beds. When remon-
strances were made to this officer for the
incessant depredations of his men, his
answer was : “ I am the commanding
officer, and damn the croppies.”t

The insurgents had taken post on Cor-
rigrua Hill in great force, where they
rested on their arms till the 4th of June,
Meantime, the long and anxiously ex-
pected army under General Loftus arrived
at Gorey. The sight of fifteen hundred
fine troops, with five pieces of artillery,
filled the loyalists with confidence. The
plan was to march the army in two
divisions, by different roads on Corrigrua,

* The li.cht in -which this conduct of the com-
manding ofhccr at Newtownbarry was set forth in
the official bulletin, was, that he at Jint rdi'eated in
order to collect his forces.

t Gord., 2 edit., p. 101.

and attack the enemy in conjunction with
other troops. The insurgents were in the
meantime preparing to quit Corrigrua,
and to march to Gorey, Information had
been received by the insurgent chiefs of
the intended motions of the army, and
they acted upon it. Both armies marched
about the same time ; that of the insur-
gents surprised a division under Colonel
Walpole, at a place called Tubberneering.
The insurgents instantly poured a tre-
mendous fire from the fields on both sides
of the road, and Walpole received a bullet
through the head early in the action. His
troops fled in the utmost disorder, leaving
their cannon, consisting of two six-
pounders and a smaller piece, in the
liands of the people. They were pursued
as far as Gorey in their flight, through
which they were galled by the fire of
some of the insurgents, who had taken
station in the houses. The loyalists of
Gorey once more fled to Arklow with
the routed army, leaving all their effects
behind.

Miles Byrne, who was in this bloody
action of Tubberneering (or Clough),
generously pays a tribute to the gallantry
of the unfortunate Walpole. He says : —

“ It is only justice to the memory of
this unfortunate man to say that he dis-
played the bravery of a soldier, and fought
with the greatest perseverance in his
critical situation ; but he was soon over-
powered by our men, now so flushed with
victory that nothing could retard their
march onward. Walpole was nearly sur-
rounded by our forces, that outflanked
him before he fell. We saw him lying dead
on the road, and he had the appearance of
having received several gunshot wounds.
His horse lay dead beside him, with a
number of private soldiers, dead and
wounded. His troops now fled in great
disorder, and could not be rallied : they
were taken by dozens in the fields and
on the road to Gorey. After they had
thrown away their arms, accoutrements,
and everything to lighten them, they
vere yet overtaken by our pikemen. It
was curious to see many of them with
their coats turned inside out. They
thought, no doubt, by this sign of dis-
affection to the English that, when made
prisoners, they would not be injured.
But this manoeuvre vvas unnecessary, for
I never heard of a single instance of a
prisoner being ill-treated during those
days of fighting. Our men were in too
good-humour to be cruel after the victory
they had obtained.”

While Walpole’s division was attacked
by the enemy. General Loftus, being
within hearing of the musketry, de-

202

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

tached seventy men— the grenadier com-
jiany of the Antrim militia— across the
fields to its assistance; hut they were
intercci)ted, and almost all killed or taken.
The General, still ignorant of the fate of
Colonel Walpole’s division, and unable to
bring his artillery across the fields, con-
tinued his march along the highway, by
a long circuit, to the field of battle, where
he was first acquainted with the event.
Tor some way he followed the insurgents
towards Gorey, but finding them posted
on Gore}’ Hill, from which they fired
upon him the cannon taken from Colonel
Walpole, he retreated to Carnew ; and
still, contrary to the opinion of most of
his officers, thinking Carnew an unsafe
post, though at the head of twelve hundred
effective men, he abandoned that part of
the county to the insurgents, and retreated
nine miles further, to the town of Tullow,
in the county of Carlow.

Whilst one formidable body of the Wex-
ford insurgents was advancing towards
the north, another still more formidable
was preparing to penetrate to the south-
west. The conquest of New Eoss, which
is situated on the river formed by the
united streams of the Nore and the Bar-
row, would have laid open a communica-
tion with the counties of Waterford and
Xilkenny, in which many thousands were
supposed ready to rise in arms at the
appearance of their successful confeder-
ates, The possession of that important
post, when it might have been effected
■without opposition immediately upon their
success at Enniscorthy, had, fortunately
for the royal cause, been abandoned,
on account of a personal difference
amongst their chiefs. The insurgent army
of Wexford choose Beauchamp Bagenal
Harvey,* as soon as he was liberated
from prison, for their generalissimo,
and they divided into two main bodies,
one of which directed it course north-
ward to Gorey ; the other, which was
headed by Harvey in person, took post on
Carrickburn mountain, within six miles

♦ The following was the form of their appoint-
ment : —

“ At a meeting of the commanders of the United
Army, held at Carrickburn camp, on 1st of June,
1798, it was unanimously agreed Beauchamp
Bagenal Harvey should be appointed and elected
commander-in-chief of the United Army of the
County of Wexford, from and after the first day of
June, 1798.

“ Signed, by order of the different commanding
officers of the camp,

“Nicholas Gray, Secretary.

“It was likewise agreed, that Edward Koche
should, from and after the 1st day of June instant,
be elected, and is hereby elected, a general officer
of the United Army of the County of AVexford.

“ Signed by the above authority,

“Nicholas Gray.”

of Ross, where it was reviewed and or-
ganized till the 4th of June, when it
marched to Corbet Hill, within a mile of
that town, which it Avas intended to attack
the next morning. Harvey, though neither
destitute of personal courage, nor of a
good understanding, possessed no military
experience, much less those rare talents
by Avhich an undisciplined multitude may
be directed and controlled. He formed
the plan of an attack on three different
parts of the tOAvn at once, Avhich Avould
probably have succeeded had it been put
in execution. Having sent a summons to
General Johnson, the commander of the
King’s troops, Avith a flag of truce, to
surrender the tOAvn, the bearer of it, one
Furlong, aa’hs shot by a sentinel of an out-
post.* Whilst Harvey Avas arranging his
forces for the assault, they Avere galled by
the fire of some outposts. He ordered a
brave young man, of the name of Kelly,
to put himself at the head of five hundred
men, and drwe in the outposts. Kelly Avas
folloAved confusedly by a much greater
number than he Avished. He executed
his commission, but could not bring
back the men, as ordered. They rushed
impetuously into the tOAvn, dro\’e back
the cavalry Avith slaughter on the in-
fantry, seized the cannon, and being fol-
loAved in their successful career by croAvds
from the hills, seemed some time nearly
masters of the town. From a full per-
suasion of a decided victory in favour of
the insurgent army, some officers of the
garrison fled to Waterford, tAvelve miles
distant, Avith the alarming intelligence.

The orginal plan of attack Avas thus
defeated by this premature, though suc-
cessful onset, in one quarter. The Dublin
and Donegal Militia maintained their posts
at the market-house, and at a station
called Fairgate, and preA^ented the insur-
gents from penetrating into the centre of

* To shoot all persons carrying flags of truce fi um
the insurgents, appears to have been a maxim with
His Majesty’s forces. In Furlong’s pocket was
found the following letter of summons to General
Johnson : —

“ Sir — As a friend to humanity, I request you
will surrender the town of Ross to the Wexford
forces, now assembled against that town. Your
resistance will but provoke rapine and plunder, to
the ruin of the most innocent. Flushed with victory,
the Wexford forces, now innumerable and irresis-
tible, will not be co.itrolled if they meet with
resistance. To prevent, therefore, the total ruin of
all property in the town, I urge you to a speedy
surrender, which you will be forced to in a few
hours, with loss and bloodshed, as you are sur-
rounded on all sides. Your answer is required in
four hours. Mr Furlong carries this letter, and Avill
bring the answer. — I am, Sir,

“ B. B. Harvey,

“General Cc'mmanding, &c., Ac., Ac.

“ Camp at Corbett Hill, half-past three o'clock in
the moruing, June 5, 1798.”

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

293

the town; while Major-General John-
son, aided by the extraordinary exertions
of an inhabitant of Koss, named M'Cor-
mick, who had served in the army, though
not then in commission, brought back to
the charge the troops that had fled across
the river to the Kilkenny side. They
presently recovered their post, and drove
the insurgents from the town, the out-
skirts of which were now in flames, fired
by the assailants or disaffected inhabi-
tants, as Enniscorthy had been. The
insurgents in their turn, rallied by their
chiefs, returned with fury to the assault,
and regained some ground. Again dis-
lodged by the same exertions as before,
and a third time rallied, they were at last
finally repulsed, after an engagement of
above ten hours, ending about two o’clock
in the afternoon.

The official bulletin, published at Dub-
lin on the 8th of June, stated that, on the
5th, about six in the morning, the insur-
gents attacked the position of General
Johnson, at Nev/ Ross, with a very large
force and great impetuosity : but that,
after a contest of several hours, they were
completely repulsed. The loss of the in-
surgents was very great, the streets being
literally strewed with their carcasses. An
iron gun upon a ship carriage had been
taken ; and late in the evening they re-
treated entirely to Carrickburn, leaving
several iron ship guns not mounted.

General Johnson,in his despatch, greatly
regretted the loss of that brave officer.
Lord Mountjoy, who fell early in the con-
test. A return of the killed and wounded
of Ilis Majesty’s forces had not then been
received, but it appeared not to have been
considerable. It was supposed to have
been about three hundred, though the
official detail afterwards made reduced it
to about half that number.*

Sir Jonah Barrington, on the authority
of a Protestant gentleman, who was an
eye-witness, gives in these words the
horrible sequel of the affair of New
Ross : —

“The firing, however, continued till

* The impetuosity and ardour -with which the in-
surgents assailed the town of Ross, and the prodi-
gality with which they threw away their lives,
surpassed helief. The troops did not stand it ; and
the difficulty with which General Johnson rallied
them proves the terror which this charge of the
insurgents had created. The first assailants had no
sooner dislodged the troops, than, instead of pursu-
ing them on their retreat, they fell to plunder, and
became quickly disabled to act from intoxication,
whereby they were so easily repulsed on the return
of the fugitive troops. Sir Richard Musgrave says,
[p. 410,] “that such was their enthusiasm that,
though whole ranks of them were seen to fall they
were succeeded by others, who seemed to court the
fate of their companions, by rushing on our troops
with renovated ardour.” |

towards night, when the insurgents who
had not entered the houses, having no
officers to command them, retreated
through the gate by which they had
entered, half-a-mile to Corbet Hill, leav-
ing some thousands of their comrades
asleep in different houses, or in the streets
to which the fianies had not communicated.
Of these, the garrison put hundreds to
the sword, without any resistance ; and
more than five thousand \vere either killed
or consumed by the conflagration.”

We now come to a scene of savage ven-
geance, which, however provoked, it will be
always painful for an Irishman to read of.
The same night of the defeat and carnage
in New Ross, the barn of Scullabogue at
the foot of Carrickburn Hill, containing
about one hundred loyalist prisoners, and
guarded by a small party of insurgents,
under John Murphy, of Loughgur, was
deliberately fired, and all its inmates
burned to death. The occasion of this
proceeding was as follows ; Some of the
people retreating from New Ross, arrived
in violent excitement, and announced
that the troops and yeomanry were
slaughtering the unresisting prisoners
after the fighting was all over — which
was true. Moreover, cases were notori-
ous, as at Dunlavin and Carnew', -where
prisoners had been put to death with the
most wanton cruelty, contrary to all the
laws of civilized war ; and men maddened
by defeat are not likely to form a cool
judgment as to the proper application
and extent of the doctrine of retaliation
in war. Yet there is, unhappily, no other
way of enforcing upon an enemy due ob-
servance of the laws of war Rian the
sternest retaliation for every outrage
done by that enemy against those laws.
All the historians of the insurrection*
represent that the people ivho burned the
barn did it by way of retaliation. Sir
Jonah Barrington says: —

“It is asserted that eighty-seven wound-
ed peasants, whom the King’s army had
found, on taking the town, in the market
house, used as an hospital, had been
burned alive ; and that, in retaliation, the
insurgents burned above a hundred royal-
ists in a barn at Scullabogue.”

Mr. Plowden. although, as a “ loyal ”
Catholic, he thinks it his duty to give
hard measure to the “rebels,” yet has con-
scientiously placed this affair of Sculla-
bogue in its true light. He says : —

“ There is no question but that the in-
surgents were universally and unexcep-
tionably determined upon the principle
of retaliation and retribution. They

* Except Sir Richard iMn'frrave, whose authcrity
is not to be taken into consideration at all.

294

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

considered every man that lost his life
under military execution, ■without trial,
as a murdered victim, whose blood ■was
to be revenged— so sanguinary and vin-
dictive had this warfare fatally become.
Besides numerous instances of such
military executions, wherever the army
had gained an advantage, they bore
deeply in their minds the deliberate
and brutal murder of thirty-eight prison-
ers, most of whom had not (at least who
Avere said and believed not to have)
committed any act of treason, atDunlavin,
on the 24th of May ; and the like wanton
and atrocious murder of thirty-nine pris-
oners of the like description at Carnew,
on the morning of Whitsun Monday,
merely because the party which had
them in custody had orders to march ;
and they Avere unwilling to discharge
them, but Avanted time to examine, much
more to try them. A gentleman of punc-
tilious A'eracity and retentive memory has
assured me that he Avas i^resent in the
House of Commons at the examination
of a Mr. Frizell, a person of respectability,
at the bar of that House, in the summer
of 1798, Avho Avas a prisoner in the house
of Scullabogue on the 4th of J une. He
Avas asked every question that could be
suggested relative to the massacre ; to
AA'liicli his ansAvers Avere substantially as
follows r That, having been taken prisoner
by a party of the rebels, he Avas confined
to a room on the ground fioor in Sculla-
bogue house, Avith tAA-enty or thirty other
persons ; that a rebel guard Avith a pike
stood near the AvindoAv, Avith Avhom he
conversed ; that persons Avere frequently
called out of the room, in Avhich he Avas.
by name, and he believes Avere soon after
shot, as he heard the reports of muskets
shortly after they had been so called out ;
that he understood that many Avere burned
in the barn, the smoke of Avhich he could
discover from the Avindow that the
sentinel pikeman assured him that they
Avould not hurt a hair of his head, as he
was ahvays knoAvn to have behaved Avell
to the poor ; that he did not knoAv of his
OAvn knoAvledge, but only from the reports
current amongst the prisoners, Avhat the
particular cause Avas for Avhich the rebels
had set fire to the barn. Upon Avhich,
!Mr. Ogle rose Avith precipitancy from
his seat and put this question to him
Avith great eagerness •. • Sir, tell us Avhat
the cause was ?’ It having been suggested
that the question Avould be more regularly
put from the chair, it Avas repeated to
him in form ; and !Mr. Frizell answered
that the only cause that he or, he be-
lieved, the other prisoners ever under-
induced the rebels to this action,

AA'as, that they had received intelligence
that the military Avere again putting all
the rebel prisoners to death in the toAvii
of Boss, as they had done at Dunlaven.
and Carnew. Mr. Ogle asked no more
questions of Mr Frizell, and he Avas soon
after dismissed from the bar. To those
gentlemen Avho Avere present at this ex-
amination, the truth of this statement is
submitted.”

As to the number of victims, Hr.
Madden, Avho has examined the subject
carefully, sets it doAA'ii at “ about one
hundred.”

General Bagenal Harvey was inexpres-
sibly shocked by the affair of Scullabogue,
especially Avhen he learned that it Avas
done upon a pretended order from him-
self.

When Cloney saw HarA'ey, after the
flight from New Ross, he found the latter
and seA'eral of the leaders “ lamenting
over the smoking ruins of the barn and
the ashes of the hapless victims of that
barbarous atrocity.”

Mr. George Taylor, whose \fieAvs are
those of the Ascendency party, states
that Bagenal Harvey, the next morning,
Avas in the greatest anguish of mind Avheu
he beheld Scullabogue barn : “ He turned
from the scene Avith horror, and Avrung
his hands and said to those about him :

‘ Innocent people Avere burned there as
ever Avere born. Your conquests for
liberty are at an end.’ He said to a friend
he fell in Avith, Avith respect to his oavu
situation : ‘ I see noAV the folly of em-
barking in this business Avitli these people.
If they succeed, I shall be murdered by
them ; if they are defeated, I shall be
hanged.’ ” They Avere defeated, and he
Avas hung.

The next day after the defeat, the in
surgents resumed their position on Car
rickburn Hill. There Avere loud murmurs
against their unfortunate Commander-in-
Chief ; Avho, on his side, AA'as not too Avell
pleased Avith the conduct of his men. He,
therefore, resigned, and retired to Wex-
ford ; but not before issuing “ General
Orders ” — and it Avas his last act of mili-
tary command— denouncing the penalty
of death against “ any person or persons
Avho should take it upon himself or them-
selves to kill or murder any prisoner,
burn any house, or commit any plunder,
Avithout special AA'ritten orders from the
Commander-in-Chief.”

By election Father Phillip Roche AA-as
noAV made Commander-in-Chief. The in-
surgents next attacked some gunboats in
the river, but Avithout success. Father
Roche then led them to the hill of Lacken,
Avithin two miles of Ross, the scene of

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

295

their late discomfiture. In the meantime,
some important movements took place on
the northern border of the county. Per-
haps the most critical occasion during
the -whole insurrection -was the advance
of the insurgents upon Arklow, in Wick-
low County, on the 9th of June, and the
battle at that place. The commanders
on this occasion were the two Fathers
Murphy, John and Michael, and the force
was the same which had so thoroughly de-
feated the King’s troops atTubberneering.

After the defeat of Walpole’s army on
the 4th of June, the insurgents had
wasted much time in Carnew. At length,
however, they collected their force at
'Gorey, and advanced to attack Arklow
on the 9th, the first day in which that
post had been prepared for defence. Their
number exceeded twenty thousand, of
whom near five thousand were armed with
guns, the rest with pikes, and they were
furnished with three serviceable pieces of
artillery. The garrison consisted of six-
teen hundred men, including yeomen,
supplementary men, and those of the
artillery. The insurgents attacked the
town on all sides, except that which is
■washed by the river. The approach of
that column, which advanced by the sea-
shore, was rapid and impetuous ; the
picket-guard of yeomen cavalry, sta-
tioned in that quarter, instantly galloped
off in such terror that most of them
stopped not their flight till they had
crossed the river, which was very broad,
swimming their horses, in grevt peril of
drowning. The further progress of the
assailants was prev'ented by the charge of
the regular cavalry, supported by the fire
of the infantry, who had been formed for
the defence of the town, in a line com-
posed of three regiments, with their bat-
talion artillery, those of tlie Armagh
and Cavan militia, and the Durham
Fencibles. The main effort of the in-
surgents, who commenced the attack
near four o’clock in the evening, was
directed against the station of the Durham,
whose line extended through the field in
front of the town to the road leading
from Gorey.

As the insurgents poured their fire
from the shelter of ditches, so that the
opposite fire of the soldiery had no effect,
Colonel Skerret, the second in command,
ordered his men to stand with ordered
arms, their left wing covered by a breast-
work, and the right by a natural rising
of the ground, until the enemy, leaving
their cover, should advance to an open
attack. This open attack was made three
times inmost formidable force, the assail-
ants rushing within a few yards of the

cannons’ mouths ; but they were received
with so close and effective a fire, that they
were repulsed with loss in every attempt.
The Durhams were not only exposed to
the fire of the enemy’s small arms, but
were also galled by their cannon. General
Needham, fearing to be overpowered by
numbers, began to talk of a retreat ; to
which Colonel Skerret spiritedly rejilieJ
to the General, that they could not hope
for victory otherwise than by preserving
their ranks ; if they broke, all was lost.
By this answer, the General was diverted
some time from his scheme of a retreat,
and in that time the business was decided
by the retreat of the insurgents, who
retired, when frustrated in "their most
furious assault, and dispirited by the
death of Father Michael Murphy, who
was killed by a cannon shot, within thirty
yards of the Durham line, while he was
leading his people to the attack.

Such is the generally-received account
of the fight at Arklow. Tlie loyalists
have always claimed victory. Indeed,
the official bulletin runs thus : —

“Dublin, June 10th, 1798.

“Accounts Avere received early this
morning by Lieutenant-General Lake,
from Major-General Needham, at Ark-
low, stating that the rebels had, in great
force, attacked his position in Arklow at
six o’clock yesterday evening. They
advanced in an irregular manner, and
extended themselves for the purpose of
turning his left flank, his rear and right
flanks being strongly defended by the
town and barrack of Arklow. Upon their
endeavouring to enter the lower end of the
town, they Avere charged by the Fortieth
Dragoon Guards, Fifth Dragoons, and
Ancient Britons, and completely routed.
All round the other points of the position
they Avere defeated Avith much slaughter,
The loss of His Majesty’s troops Avas
trifling, and their behaviour highly gal-
lant.”

One part of this despatch is certainly
false. The insurgents Avere not “ routed,”
but after remaining for some time in
possession of the field of battle, they re-
tired at their leisure, carrying off all their
Avounded. Sir Jonah Barrington calls it
“ a draAvn battle and Miles Byrne, who
fought in it, Avas under the impression
that his party had gained a victory,
though he admits they did not fol-
loAV it up as they ought to have done.
This fine old soldier, AATiting of it sixty
years afterAvards, in Baris, exclaims Avith
bitter regret : —

“ How melancholy to think a victory,

29G

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

SO clearly bought, should have been aban-
doned, and for which no good or plausi-
ble motive could ever be assigned. No
doubt we had expended nearly all our
ammunition, but that should have served
as a sufficient reason to have brought all
our pikemen instantly to pursue the enemy
whilst in a state of disorder, and panic-
struck, as it really was that day at
Arklow.

“My firm belief is, to-day, as it was
that day, that if we had had no artillery,
the battle would have been won in half
the time; for Ave should have attacked
the position of the Durham Fencibles at
the very onset, with some thousand de-
termined pikemen, in place of leaving
those valiant fellows inactive to admire
the effect of each cannon-shot. No doubt
our little artillery was admirably directed,
and did Avonders, until Esmond Kyan’s
Avound depriA'ed the Irish army of this
gallant man’s serAuces ; he Avas in e\'ery
sense of the Avord a real soldier and true
patriot.

“ Never before had the English Go-
A^ernment in Ireland been so near its
total destruction. When Iloche’s ex-
pedition appeared on the coast in 1796,
the Irish nation Avas ready to avail itself
of it, to throAv off the English yoke ;
but noAv the people found they Avere
adeciuate to accomplish this great act
themselves Avithont foreign aid. What
a pity that there Avas not some enter-
prising chief at their head at ArkloAv,
to have folloAA'ed up our victory to the
city of Dublin, Avhere Ave should have
mustered more than a hundred thousand
in a few days ; consequently, the capital
Avould have been occupied Avithout delay
by our forces ; Avhen a proA'isional go-
vernment Avould have been organized,
and the Avhole Irish nation called on to
proclaim its independence. Then Avonld
every emblem of the cruel English Go-
vernment haA'e disappeared from the soil
of our beloved country, Avhich Avould once
more take its rank amongst the other
independent states of the earth.”

The toAvn of Wexford Avas still in the
hands of the insurgents. They had ap-
j)ointed a certain General Keogh Gover-
nor and Commandant of the town. This
extraordinary man, haA'ing been a private
in Ilis Majesty’s service, had risen to the
rank of Lieutenant in the Sixth Kegi-
ment, in Avhich he served in America,
lie Avas a man of engaging address, and
of that competency of fortune Avhich en-
abled him to live comforably in Wexford.
Proud and ambitious, he appreciated his
own abilities highly ; in clubs and coffee-
houses he had long been in the habit of

censuring the corruptions of GoA^ernraent,
and Avas so violent an advocate for reform
that the Lord-Chancellor had depriA'ed
him of the Commission of the Peace, in
the year 1796. In order to introduce
some order into the town, the insurgents
chose certain persons to distribute pro-
A’isions, and for that purpose to give
tickets to the inhabitants to entitle them
to a rateable portion of them, according to
the number of inhabitants in each house.
Many habitations of the Protestants Avho
had made their escape Avere plundered^
some of them Avere demolished.

Several of the Protestant inhabitants
of the town Avere imprisoned at this time,
but only those Avho Avere considered as the
most obnoxious, or Avere knoAvn as
Orangemen, and, therefore, bound by
oath to exterminate their Catholic neigh-
bours. It must be admitted, that during
the three AA-eeks while the insurgents oc-
cupied Wexford, many military execu-
tions took place ; but ahvays on the plea
of retaliation. Eor example, on the 6th of
June, under an order from Enniscorthy,
ten prisoners at Wexford Avere selected
for execution, and suffered accordingly.
Conjectures have been hazarded Avhy such
orders emanated from Enniscorthy rather
than from Wexford. The natural in-
ference from the limitation of the Auctims
to half a score, is that the insurgents, av1u>
professed to act upon the principles of
retaliation, had received information that
a similar number of their people had
suffered in like manner on the preceding
day.

Mr. PloAvden remarks very reasonably :
“ Bloody as the rebels are represented to
liaA^e been, there could have been no other
reason for their limiting their lust fur
murder to the particular number of ten.”

Most of the sanguinary executions per-
petrated at Wexford during this time
are attributed to the A'iolence of a man
named Dixon, a ship captain belonging to
the port. Ilis atrocity is ascribed to pri-
vate vengeance.

The Kev. Mr. Dixon, his relatiA'e, a
Roman Catholic clergyman, having been
sentenced to transportation, had been sent
off to Duncannon Fort the day preceding
the insurrection ; he Aras found guilty on
the testimony of one Francis INIurphy,
Avhose evidence Avas positively contra-
dicted by three other Avitnesses. Under
these circumstances, Dixon took a sum-
mary method of avenging himself ; and
Avas ahvays ready to undertake the charge
of doing military execution upon those
Avho Avere abandoned to his ministrations.
An author of candour and credit, the Rev,
Mr. Gordon, has stated that he could not

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

297

ascertain with accuracy the number of
persons put to death without law in Wex-
ford during the whole time of its occupa-
tion by the insurgents ; but believed it to
have amounted to one hundred and one.
Probably ten times that number of inno-
cent country people had been during the
same three weeks, murdered in cold blood
by the yeomanry. It is sad to be obliged
to go into such a dismal account ; but as
the “ rebels ” have been always very freely
vilified for their cruelties, and have had
but few friends to plead for them, it is
right, at least to establish the truth, so
far as that can be now discovered. Most
of the sanguinary deeds were done with-
out, or against, the orders of the leaders,
who could not always restrain their
exasperated followers ; and the following
proclamation, issued in Wexford, seems
to show that there was no wish to
spill the blood of any who had not
been guilty of some peculiar atrocities
towards the people : —

“ Proclamation o f the People of the County
of ]Vexford.

“ Whereas, it stands manifestly notori-
ous that James Boyd, Hawtry White,
Hunter Gowan, and Archibald Hamilton
Jacob, late magistrates of this county,
have committed the most horrid acts of
cruelty, violence, and oppression, against
our peaceable and well-affected country-
men. Now we, the people, associated
and united for the purpose of procuring
our just rights, and being determined to
protect the persons and properties of those
of all religious persuasions who have not
oppressed us, and are willing with heart
and hand to join our glorious cause, as
well as to show our marked disapproba-
tion and horror of the crimes of the above
delinquents, do call on our countrymen
at large to use every exertion in their
power to apprehend the bodies of the
aforesaid James Boyd, &c., &c.. &c., and
to secure and convey them to the jail of
Wexford, to be brought before the tri-
bunal of the people.

“ Done at Wexford, this 9th day of
June, 1798.

“ God Save the People.”

On the 2nd of June a small vessel was
faken on the coast, and brought into Wex-
ford; and on board this vessel Lord
Kingsborough and three officers of the
North Cork Militia were captured. During
his lordship’s detention he was lodged in
the house of Captain Keogh, and to his
humane, spirited, and indefatigable ex-
ertions, and those of Mr. Harvey, his
lordship acknowledged that his life was

due, on the many occasions that the fury
of the multitude broke out against him.
There were few men in Ireland at this
period more unpopular than his lordship
— his exploits in the way of extorting
confessions by scourgings, and other tor-
tures, had rendered his name a terror to
the people. The difficulty of preserving
his life from the vengeance of a lawless
multitude must have been great.

A considerable concentration of regular
troops was now rapidly being formed in
the county, with a view to crush the in-
surrection at once.

On the 19th of June, General Edward
Roche, and such of the insurgents of his
neighbourhood as were at Vinegar Hill,
were sent home to collect the whole mass
of the people for general defence. By the
march of the royal army in all directions,
towards Vinegar Hill and Wexford, a
general flight of cuch of the inhabitants
as could get off took place.

The alarm was now general throughout
the country ; all men were called to attend
the camps ; and Wexford became the uni-
versal rendezvous of the fugitives, who
reported, with various circumstances of
horror, the progress of the different armies
approaching in every direction, marking
their movements with terrible devastation.
Ships of vnar were also seen off the coast ;
gunboats blocked up the entrance of the
harbour ; and from the commanding situa-
tion of the camp at the Three Rocks, on
the mountain of Forth, the general con-
flagration, which was as progressive as
the march of the troops, was clearly
visible. On the approach of the army,
great numbers of countrymen, with their
wives and children, and any little baggage
they could hastily pack up, fled towards
Wexford as to an asylum, and described
the plunder and destruction of houses,
the murders and outrages of the soldiery
let loose and encouraged to range over
and devastate the country. General
Moore, who advanced with a part of
the army, did all in his power to prevent
these atrocities, and had some of the
murderers immediately put to death ;
but his humane and benevolent intentions
were greatl}'- baffled by the indomitable
ferocity and revenge ot the refugees re-
turning home.

These cruelties being reported in the
town of Wexford, provoked additional
cruelties there also ; and it was in this
moment of alarm, when peremptory
orders came for all the fighting men to
repair to Vinegar Hill, that the savage
Dixon, with the assistance of seventy
or eighty men, whom he had made drunk
for the purpose, perpetrated upon the

298

HISTORY OF lEELARD.

Protestant prisoners the slaughter called
“ Massacre of the Bridge of Wexford,”
in revenge for the slaughters which the
Orangemen were committing upon un-
armed people in the country around.
When about thirty-five unfortunate men
had been murdered, the butchery was
stopped, at seven in the evening, by the
interference of Father Corrin, and by the
alarming intelligence that the post of
Vinegar Hill was already almost beset by
the King’s troops.

After the indecisive affair at Arklow,
the royal army, under General Needham,
remained for some days close within its
quarters ; then proceeded to Gorby on the
19th of June, and thence towards Ennis-
earthy on the 20th, according to a con-
certed plan, conducted by Lieutenant-
General Lake, that the great station of
the insurgents at Vinegar Hill should be
surrounded by His Majesty’s forces, and
attacked in all points at once. For this
purpose, different armies moved at the
same time from different quarters ; one
tinder Lieutenant-General Dundas ; an-
other under Major-Generals Sir James
Duff and Loftus ; that already mentioned
from Arklow ; and a fourth from Ross,
under Major-Generals Johnson and Eus-
tace, who were to make the attack on the
town of Enniscorthy. The march of the
army from Ross was a kind of surprise to
the bands of Philip Roche, on Lacken
Hill, who retired after a sharp fight,
leaving their tents and a great quantity
of plunder behind ; separating into two
bodies, one of wliich took its way to Wex-
ford, the other to Vinegar Hill, where the
Wexford insurgents were concentrating
their forces. This eminence, with the
town of Enniscorthy at its foot, and the
countrj'^ for many miles round, had been
in possession of tlie insurgents from the
28th of May, during which time the face
of affairs had been growing more and
more gloomy for the cause of the people.
With the despondency, there also came
upon the insurgents a feeling of more
vindictive rage. They saw the people
could expect no mercy ; and as the ad-
vancing columns spread devastation and
slaughter, and the people on the hill could
see the smoke of burning villages, and
almost hear the shrieks of tortured and
mangled women and children, they again
applied their system of retaliation. The
prisoners who had fallen into the hands of
the insurgents, after a sham trial, or no
trial at all, were shot or piked. About
eighty-four suffered death here in this
manner.*

* Hay’s Ilistorj'. Plowdcn says that report car-
ried the number of victims as liigli as four Imudred.

It was at Vinegar Hill that the last en-
gagement of any importance took place
between the troops and the people. It
was on the 21st of June, and little more
than three weeks after Father John Mur-
phy’s rising.

Vinegar Hill is a gentle eminence on
the banks of the river Slaney ; at its foot
lies the considerable town of Enniscorthy.
At one point the ascent is rather steep, on
the other, gradual ; the top is crowned by
a dilapidated stone building. The hill is
extensive, and completely commands the
town and most of the approaches to it ;
the country around it is rich, and sufii-
ciently wooded, and studded with country-
seats and lodges. Few spots in Ireland,
under all its circumstances, can be more
interesting to a traveller. On the summit
of the hill the insurgents had collected
the remains of their Wexford army; its
number may be conjectured from General
Lake deciding that twenty thousand regu-
lar troops were necessary for the attack ;
but, in fact, the effective of his army
amounted, on the day of battle, to little
more than thirteen thousand. The
peasantry had dug a slight ditch around
a large extent of the base ; they had a
very few pieces of small half-disabled
cannon, some swivels, and not above two
thousand fire-arms of all descriptions.
But their situation Avas desperate ; and
General Lake considered that two thou-
sand fire-arms, in the hands of infuriated
and courageous men, supported by multi-
tudes of pikemen, might be equal to ten
times the number under other circum-
stances. A great many women mingled
with their relatives, and fought with fury
several Avere found dead among the men,
Avho had fallen in crowds by the bursting
of the shells.

General Lake, at the break of day, dis-
posed his attack in four columns, Avhilst
his cavalry Avere prepared to do execution
on the fugitives. One of the columns
(whether by accident or design is strongly
debated) did not arrive in time at its
station, by Avhich the insurgents AA'ere
enabled to retreat to Wexford, through
a country Avhere they could not be
pursued by cavalry or cannon. It
was astonishing Avith Avhat fortitude
the peasantry, uncoA^ered, stood the
tremendous fire opened upon the four
sides of their position ; a stream of shells
and grape Avas poured on the multitude ;
the leaders encouraged them by exhorta-
tions, the Avomen by their cries, and every
shell that broke amongst them Avas fol-
loAved by shouts of defiance. General
Lake’s horse Avas shot, many officers
wounded, some killed, and a few gentle-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

299

men became invisible during the heat of
the battle. The troops advanced gradu-
ally, but steadily, up the hill ; the peas-
antry kept up their fire, and maintained
their ground ; their cannon was nearly
useless, their powder deficient, but they
died fighting at their post. At length,
enveloped in a torrent of fire, they broke,
and sought their safety through the space
that General Needham had left by the
non-arrival of his column. They were
partially charged by some cavalry, but
with little execution ; they retreated to
Wexford, and that night occupied the town.

The insurgents left behind them a great
quantity of plunder, together with all
their cannon, amounting to thirteen in
number, of which three were six-pound-
ers. The loss on the side of the King’s
forces was very inconsiderable, though
one officer. Lieutenant Sandys, of the
Longford militia, was killed, and four
others slightly wounded — Colonel King,
of the Sligo regiment; Colonel Vesey,
of the county of Dublin regiment ; Lord
Blaney, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cole.

Enniscorthy being thus recovered, after
having been above three weeks in the
hands of the insurgents, excesses, as
must be expected in such a state of
affairs, were committed by the soldiery,
particularly by the Hessian troops, who
made no distinction between loyalist and
insurgent. The most diabolical act of
this kind was the firing of a house, which
had been used as an hospital by the insur-
gents, in which numbers of sick and
wounded, who Avere unable to escape from
the flames, Avere burned to ashes. *

The tOAA'n of Wexford Avas relieved on
the same day with Enniscorthy, Brigadier
General Moore, according to the plan
formed by General Lake, haAung made a
movement towards that quarter from the
-side of Ross, on the 19th, with a body of
tAvelve hundred troops, furnished with
artillery; and having directed his march
to Taghmon, in his intended Avay to En-
niscorthy, on the 20th, Avas, on his Avay
thither, between one and tAvo o’clock in
the afternoon, attacked by a large force
of the people from Wexford, perhaps five
or six thousand, near a place called Goff’s
Bridge, not far from Hore Town. After
u.n action, Avhich continued till near eight,
the insurgents Avere repulsed with some
loss ; yet the fate of the day Avas long
doubtful, and many of the King’s troops
Avere killed.

Wexford, wLich had been taken by the

* The Rev’. Mr. Gordon says he was informed by
.n surgeon that the burning was accidental, the bed-
clothes liaving been set on fire by the wadding of
"the soldiers’ guns, who were shooting the patients j
in tlieir beda

insurgents on the 30th of May, was sur-
rendered to the King’s troops on the 23rd
of June.

“ Relying on the faith of Lord Kings-
borough’s jiromises of complete protection
of persons and properties,” we are told by
Hay, “several remained in the town of
Wexford, unconscious of any reason to
apprehend danger; but they were soon
taken up and committed to jail. The
Rev. Philip Roach had such confidence in
these assurances, and Avas so certain of ob-
taining similar terms for those under his
command, that he left his force at Sledagh,
in full hopes of being permitted to return
in peace to their homes, and Avas on his
way to Wexford unarmed, coming, as he
thought, to receive a confirmation of the
conditions, and so little apprehensive of
danger that he advanced within the lines
before he Avas recognised, Avhen all possi-
bility of escape AAuas at an end. He was
instantly dragged from his horse, and in
the most ignominious manner taken up to
the camp on the Windmill Hills, pulled
by the hair, kicked, buffeted, and at length
hauled doAAui to the jail in such a condition
as scarcely to be knoAvn. The people
whom he left in expectation of being per-
mitted to return quietly home. Availed
his arrival ; but at last being informed of
his fate, they abandoned all idea of peace,
and set off, under the command of the Rev.
John Murphy, to Look’s Mill, and so on
through Scollaghgap into the County of
CarloAv

“ From the encampment at Ballenkeele,
commanded by General Needham, detach-
ments Avere sent out to scour the country.
The}" burned the Catholic chapel of Belle-
murrin, situate on the demesne of Ballen-
keele, on which they Avere encamped, be-
sides several houses in the neighbourhood.”

It is not clear that Lord Kingsborough,
Avho was in Wexford as a prisoner, had
poAver to “ promise protection of person
and property,” in case of surrender. At
all events, no attention was paid to those
negotiations. Two of the insurgent chiefs,
Cloney and O’Hea, repaired to Ennis-
corthy, to make proposals for capitula-
tion

“ Lieutenant-General Lake cannot at-
tend to any terms by rebels in arms
against their sovereign. While they con-
tinue so, he must use the foi'ce entrusted
to him Avith the utmost energy for their
destruction. To the deluded multitude he
promises pardon on their delivering into his
hands their leaders, surrendering their arms,
and returning with sincerity to their
allegiance.

“(Signed) G. Lake.

“ Ekniscokthy, June 22, 1798.”

300

HISTOKY OF IKELAND.

Lord Lake established his headquarters
in the house of Captain Keogh, the late
commandant of the post— Keogh being
now lodged in jail. Cornelius Grogan
surrendered, relying on the protection.
Messrs. Colclough and Harvey attempted
to escape, and concealed themselv.es in a
cave upon the Great Saltee Island, off the
coast. Here they were discovered ; were
brought to Wexford ; and, a few days
after, all these gentlemen, with many
others, were tried by martial law and
executed. Their heads were cut off and
spiked in a row in front of the court-
house.*

As for the unfortunate country people,
now left to the mercy of a savage soldiery,
they were hunted down in all directions
by the yeomanry cavalry. A detail of
these horrors would be revolting. We
must take a summary from the testimony
of those who saw it.

“ In short,” says Mr. EdAvard Hay,
“death and desolation were spread through-
out the country, which was searched and
hunted so severely that scarcely a man
escaped. The old and harmless suffered,
whilst they avIio had the use of their limbs,
and Avere guilty, had previously made off
with the main body of the people. The
dead bodies scattered about, Avith their
throats cut across, and mangled in the
most shocking manner, exhibited scenes
exceeding the usual horrors of Avar. The
soldiery on this occasion, particularly tlie
dragoons of General Ferdinand Hompesch,
were permitted to indulge in such ferocity
and brutal lust to the sex as must per-
petuate hatred and horror of the army to
generations.”

The treatment of Avomen by these
Hessians and the yeomanry coAvards Avas
truly horrible ; and the less capable of any

* Bapenal Harvey was proA'ed, on the trial, to
have constantly opposed deeds of blood, and en-
deavoured to prevent the Avanton destruction of
loyalist property. It Avas so much the worse for
him. The Kev. Mr. Gordon tells us a remarkable
trait of the times : “ The display of humanity by a
rebel, Avas, in general, in the trials by court-martial,
by no means regarded as a circumstance in favour
of the accused. Strange as it may seem, in times
of cool reflection, it Avas very frequently urged as a
proof of guilt. Whoever could be proved to have
saved a loyalist from assassination, his house from
burning, or his property from plunder. Avas con-
sidered as having influence among the rebels — con-
sequently a commander. This seems to have arisen
from a rage of prosecution, by Avhich the crime of
rebellion Avas regarded as too great to admit any
circumstarices of extenuation in favour of the person
guilty of it, and by Avhich every mode of conviction
against such a penson Avas deemed justifiable."

lie makes mention of the notoriety of this practice
having drawn the following extraordinary exclama-
tion from a Roman Catholic gentleman avIio had
been one of the insurgents : “ I thank my God that
no person can prove me guilty of saving the life or
property of any one ! ”

excuse, as, in this matter at least, ther&
could be no pretence for retaliation.

“ It is a singular fact,” says Sir Jonah
Barrington, “ that in all the ferocity of
the conflict, the storming of tOAvns and of
villages, women Avere uniformly respected
by the insurgents. Though numerous
ladies fell occasionally into their poAver,
they never experienced any incivility or
misconduct. But the foreign troops in
our service (Hompesch’s) not only brutally
ill-treated, but occasionally shot gentle-
Avomen. A very respectable married
Avoman in Enniscorthy (Mrs. Stringer,
the wife of an attorney), was Avan+only
shot at her OAvn window by a German,
in cold blood. The rebels (though her
husband Avas a royalist) a short time
after took some of those foreign soldiers
prisoners, and piked them all, as they
told them — just to teach them how to shoot
ladies' Martial law always affects both
sides. Ketaliation becomes the laAv of
nature Avherever municipal laAvs are not
in operation. It is a remedy that should
neA^er be resorted to but in extremes.”

On the same shocking subject Mr.
IToAvden observes : —

“ As to this species of outrage, Avhich
rests noAV in proof, it is uniA'ersally al-
loAved to have been on the side of the
military. It produced an indignant horror
in the country which went beyond, but
preA'ented retaliation. It is a character-
istic mark of the Irish nation neither to
forget nor forgi\'e an insult or injury
done to the honour of their female re-
latives. It has been boasted of by officers
of rank that, Avithin certain large districts,
a Avoman had not been left undefiled ; and
upon observation, in ansAver, that the sex
must then have been A'ery complying, the
reply Avas, that the bayonet remoA'ed all
squeamishness. A lady of fashion, having
in conversation been questioned as to this
difference of conduct toAvards the sex in
the military and the rebels, attributed it,
in disgust, to a tvant ofgalJantrg in the crop-
pies. By these general remarks it is not
meant to verify or justify the saying of a
field-officer, or a lady of quality, both of
Avhom could be named ; but merely to
shoAv the prevalence of the general feel-
ings and professions at that time upon
these horrid subjects ; and, consequently,
Avhat effects must naturally have floAved
from them. In all matters of irritation
and revenge, it is the conviction that the-
injury exists Avhich produces the bad
effect.” Even Sir Richard Musgrave ad-
mits (p. 428) that, “on most occasions,
they did not offer any violence to the
tender sex.”

There was little more fighting in the-

IIISTOTIY OF IRELAND.

301

county. Separate bands of the insurf^ents
were making their way either into Wick-
low on the north, a countiw of mountains,
glens, and lakes, or westward into Carlow
by way of Scollaghgap, between IMount
Leinster and Blackstairs INIountain.

The northern part of the county of Wex-
ford had been almost totally deserted l)y all
the male inhabitants on the 19th, at the
approach of the army under General Need-
ham. Some of the yeomanry, who had
formerly deserted it, returned to Gorey on
the 21st, and, on finding no officer of the
army, as was expected, to command there,
they, with many others, who returned
along with them, scoured the country
round, and killed great numbers in their
houses, besides all the stragglers they
met, most of whom were making the best
of their way home unarmed from the in-
surgents, who were then believed to be
totally discomfited. These transactions
being made known to a body of the insur-
gents encamped at Peppard’s Castle, on
the 22nd, they resolved to retaliate, and
directly marched for Gorey, whither they
had otherwise no intention of proceeding.
The yeomen and their associates, upon the
near approach of the insurgents, lied back
with precipitation ; and thence, accom-
panied by many others, hastened toward
Arklow, but were pursued as far as Cool-
greney, with the loss of forty-seven men.
The day was called Bloody Friday. The
insurgents had been exasperated to this
Tengeance by discovering through the
country as they came along, several dead
men with their skulls split assunder, their
bowels ripped open, and their throats cut
across, besides some dead women and chil-
dren. They even saw the dead bodies of
two women, about which their surviving
children were creeping and bewailing
them ! These sights hastened the insur-
gent force to Gorey, where their exasper-
ation was considerably augmented by dis-
covering the pigs in the streets devouring
the bodies of nine men, who had been
hanged the day before, with several others
recently shot, and some still expiring.

After the return of the insurgents from
the pursuit, several persons were found
lurking in the town, and brought before
Mr. Fitzgerald, particularly Mr. Peppard,
sovereign of Gorey ; but, from this gen-
tleman’s age and respectability, he was
considered incapable of being accessory to
the perpetration of the horrid cruelty
which provoked and prompted this sud-
den revenge, and he and others were
saved, protected, and set at libert3^ At
this critical time, the news of the burn-
ing of i\Ir. Fitzgerald’s house, still further
maddened the people ; but, foi’getful of

such great personal injury, he exerted
his utmost endeavours to restrain the
insurgents, who vociferated hourly for
vengeance for their favourites, and suc-
ceeded in leading them off from Gorey ;
when, after a slight repast, they resumed
their intended route, rested that night at
the White Heaps, on Croghan Mountain,
and on the 23rd set off for the mountains
of Wicklow.

Such Wexford men as still remained in
arms, having no longer any homes, and
afraid to go to their homes if they had,
were endeavouring to join the insurgents
in other counties. One of these bodies,
commanded by the Kev. John Murphy
(with whom was Miles Byrne), proceeded
through the County of Carlow ; and,
having arrived before the little town of
Goresbridge, in the County of Kilkenny, a
show of defence was made at a bridge on
the River Barrow, by a party of Wexford
Militia ; but they were quickly repulsed,
driven back into the village, and nearly
all either killed, wounded, or taken pri-
soners. The prisoners were conveyed
with the insurgents until they arrived on
a ridge of hills which divides the Counties
of Carlow and Kilkenny from the Queen’s
County. Here they put some of the un-
fortunate prisoners to death, and buried
their bodies on the hill. Others escaped
and joined their friends. In justice to
the memory of the Rev. John Murphy, it
must here be stated that these murders
were done contrary to his solemn injunc-
tions, and that they were the result of long-
felt and deadly hatred, entertained by
some of the insurgents towards the
militia-men. The example of murdering
in cold blood was, no doubt, constantly
set them by their enemies. If a war of
partial extermination had not been pro-
claimed, no justification Avhatever could be
offered for this atrocity ; but it is well
known that, although the practice was
not avowedly sanctioned by the consti-
tuted authorities, it was in almost all
cases unblushingly advised by the under-
lings of power in Ireland.

“ Having rested for the night of the
23rd of June on the Ridge, as those hills
are called, they proceeded early next
morning to Castlecomer, and commenced
a furious attack upon the town at ten
o’clock. The principal resistance offered
to their progress was from a party
stationed in a house at the foot of the
bridge, which was ably defended, and
opposite to which many brave men fell,
by rashl}'- exposing themselves in front of
so strong a position ; for the town could
have been attacked and carried with very
little loss from another quarter. In fact,

302

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

every other position was speedily aban-
doned by the military and yeomanry, who
retreated and took np a position on a hill
at a respectful distance from the town.
Here, as well as in most other places where
the insurgents had been engaged, skill
alone was wanting to insure success. The
people had numbers and courage enough
to overthroAv any force which had been
sent against them, if they had been
skilfully commanded. The attack on the
well-defended house was fruitlessly kept
up for four hours, from which they finally
retreated with severe loss, and marched
in a northwest direction about fives miles
into the Queen’s County.”* boon after,
finding themselves hard pressed by bodies
of troops on three sides, they were obliged
to retreat once more in the direction of
the Carlow mountains. At Kilcomney
they were forced to fight, but without
any chance of success. They were en-
tirely routed. Father Murphy was taken
three days later, brought to General
Duff's headquarters at Tullow, tried by
martial law, and after being first cruelly
scourged, was executed. His head, as
usual, was spiked in the market place of
the town.

Another of the scattered bands, led by
Antony Perry, of Inch, and Father
Kearns, penetrated into Kildare, and
joining with the Kildare insurgents, at-
tempted to march upon Athlone. They
were beaten, however, at Clonard ; Perry
and Father Kearns were both taken
prisoners, and met the usual doom.f

Edward Fitzgerald, Miles Byrne, and
some other chiefs, still kept a consider-
able band on foot in the mountains on
the border of Wicklow, from M’hence
they occasionally made descents, and
attacked some bodies of troops with
success. One of these affairs Avas the
assault upon the barracks at Hackets-
town ; and another was the memorable
extirpation of that hated regiment, the
“ Ancient Britons,” at Ballyellis. Be-
fore Miles Byrne finally retired into
the fastnesses of Wicklow, to join Holt,
he had the satisfaction to bear a hand in
that bloody j)iece of work. We let him
tell it in his own words : —

•• Early in the morning of the 29th of
June, it was resolved to march and attack
the town of Carnew. The column Avas
halted at Monaseed to repose and take
some kind of refreshments, Avhich were
indeed difficult to be had, as CAery house
had been plundered by the English troops
on tlieir Avay to Vinegar Hill a feAv days
before.

“ The Irish column resumed its march

* Cloney’s Llemoir. t Madden’s laves.

on the high road to CarneAv, and in less
than half an hour after its departure, a
large division of English cavalry, sent
from Gorey by General Needham, marched
into Monaseed. This division consisted
of the notorious Ancient Britons, a ca-
valry regiment which had committed all
sorts of crimes when placed on free quar-
ters Avith the unfortunate inhabitants pre-
vious to the rising. This infernal regi-
ment Avas accompanied by all the yeomen
cavalry corps from Arklow, Gorey, Cool-
greeny, &c., and the chiefs of those corps,
such as Huuter Gowan, Beaumont, of
Hyde Park, Earl Mountnorris, Earl Cour-
tOAvn, Earn, Hawtry White, &c., could
boast as Avell as the Ancient Britons of
having committed cold-blooded murders
on an unarmed country people. But they
never had the courage to meet us on the
field of battle, as will be seen by the
dastardly Avay they abandoned the Ancient
Britons at Ballyellis.

“ The officers of the Ancient Britons, as
Avell as those of the yeomen corps, learned
that the Irish forces had just marched off
on the road to CarneAv, and were informed
at a public-house that the insurgents wha
had been there Avere complaining hoAV
they Avere fatigued to death by the con-
tinual marching and counter-marching,
and that although they had fire-arms, their
ammunition was completely exhausted,
and scarce a ball-cartridge remained in
their army. The truth of this information
could not be doubted. All the informa-
tion coming through so sure a channel,
encouraged the English troops to pursue
Avithout delay the insurgents, and to
cut them down and exterminate them
to the last man, for they could not
resist AAuthout ammunition. The Ancient
Britons Avere to charge on the road,
Avhilst the yeomen cavalry, being so Avell
mounted, Avere to cover the flanks and ta
march through the field ; and those fox-
hunters promised that not one croppy
should escape their A'engeance.

“All being thus settled, and plenty o
AA’hisky distributed to the English soldiers,,
the march to overtake the insurgent&
commenced, and Avhen about tAA'o miles
from Monaseed, at Ballyellis, one mile
from CarneAA% the Ancient Britons being
in full gallop, charging, and as they
thought, driving all before them, to their
great surprise, Avere suddenly stopped by
a barricade of cars throAvn across the
road.and at the same moment that the head
of the column Avas thu.s stopped, the rear
Avas attacked by a mass of pikemen, Avho
sallied out from behind a Avail, and com-
pletely shut up the road, as soon as the
last of the cavalry had passed. The re-

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

303

mains or ruins of an old deer-park wall
on the right-hand side of the road, ran
along for about half-a-mile ; in many parts
it was not more than three or four feet
high. All along the inside of this our
gunsmen and pikemen were jdaced. On
the left-hand side of the road there was
an immense ditch, with swampy ground,
\vhich few horses could be found to leap.
In this advantageous situation for our
men, the battle began ; the gunsmen, half
covered, firing from behind the wall, whilst
the English cavalry, though well mounted,
could only make use of their carbines
and pistols, for with their sabres they
were unable to ward off the thrusts of our
pikemen, who sallied out on them in the
most determined manner.

“ Thus, in less than an hour, this in-
famous regiment, which had been the
horror of the country, was slain to the
last man, as well as the few yeomen
cavalry who had the courage to take part
in the action. For all those who quit
their horses and got into the fields were
followed and piked on the marshy ground.
The greater part of the numerous cavalry
corps which accompanied the Ancient Bri-
tons kept on the rising ground, to the right
side of the road, at some distance, during
the battle, and as soon as the result of it
was known, thej' fled in the most cowardly
way in every direction, both dismayed
and disappointed that they had no oppor-
tunity on this memorable day of murder-
ing the stragglers, as was their custom
on such occasions. I say ‘memorable,’
for during the war no action occurred
which made so great a sensation in the
country ; as it proved to the enemy, that
whenever our pikemen were well com-
manded and kept in close order, they
were invulnerable. And, besides, it
served to elate the courage and desire of
our men to be led forthwith to new
combats.

“ The English troops that marched out
from Carnew retreated back on the town
in great haste, when they heard of the
defeat of the Ancient Britons at Ballyellis.
The infantry, finding that they were
closely pursued by our men, barricaded
themselves in a large malt house belong-
ing to Bob Blaney. This malt house was
spared at the time of the first attack on
Carnew, when the greatest part of the
town Avas burned, on account of the up-
right and humane conduct of the owner,
Mr. Blaney. Now it had become a for-
midable and well fortified barrack, capable
of holding out a long time, particularly
as our army had no cannon to bring to
bear against it. However, it Av^as in-
stantly attacked, and great efforts made

to dislodge the enemy, who kept up a con-
tinual fire from all the Avindows ; and, as
at IlacketstoAvn, every means were taken
to approach the doors under cover of beds,
straAv, tfcc., but without success, as the
men were wounded through the Ijeds and
straAv, before they could reach the doors.
So it became necessary to wait till night
came on, Avhen the garrison Avhich occu-
pied this malt house Avould have no other
alternative left it but to surrender at dis-
cretion, or be consumed to ashes.

“ EdAvard Fitzgerald and the other
chiefs deemed it more prudent, hoAvever,
to raise the siege and to take a military
position on Kilcavan Hill for the night,
rather than remain before the barracks or
malt house ; knowing well that General
Needham, who commanded the English
forces at Gorey, as also the English troops
at Ferns and NewtOAvnbarry, Avould make
a forced march to relieve Carnew, and, if
possible, endeavour to obtain some kind of
revenge for the destruction of their fa-
vourite Ancient Britons ; Avhom they so
cowardly abandoned at Ballyellis to their
dismal and Avell-earned doom.”

But these combats were noAv little
more than efforts of despair. Fitzgerald,
Avho commanded at Ballyellis, not long
after surrendered, along with Aylmer, in
Kildare, was detained for some time, then
permitted to exile himself, and was knoAvn
in 1803 to be residing at Hamburg. Mr.
Fitzgerald was a gentleman of large pro-
perty and great personal accomplishments,
and had been goaded into resistance by the
savage tyranny which he saw carried on
around him. Miles Byrne, after these
terrible scenes in his native land, after-
wards served in the French army for
thirty years. He died a Knight of St.
Louis and an officer of the Legion of
IIonour,Avith the grade of

It is to be remarked of this insurrec-
tion in Wexford, that scarcely any of its
leaders Avere United Irishmen. Father
Murphy, who began it, and some fifteen
other clergymen who took an active part
in it, not only Avere not United Irishmen,
but had done their utmost to discourage
and break up that society, in some cases
even refusing the sacrament to those avIio
were members. Therefore, that insur-
rection Avas not the result of a conspiracy
to make an insurrection, but of the acts
of the Government to provoke one.

Next, it is to be observed that this was
not a “ Popish” rebellion, although every
effort Avas made to give it a sectarian
character — first by disarming and dis-
gracing the Catholic yeomanry, next by
burning chapels and maltreating priests,
and further by the direct incitements

304

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

and encouragement given to the Orange
yeomanry (who were brought into the
county for the purpose), to practise
their favourite plan of exterminating
Catholics. Yet some of the most trusted
leaders of the people were rrotestants ;
as Harvey, Grogan, one of the two
Colcloughs, Antony Perry, and Keogh,
Commandant of Wexford, There was,
it is true, one Protestant church de-

faced, as we have seen, but not till long
after several Catholic chapels had been
demolished. It may be affirmed, that
whatever there were of religious rancour
in the contest was the work of the Go-
vernment through its Orange allies,
and with the express purpose of prevent-
ing an union of Irishmen of all creeds— a
thing which is felt to be incompatible
with British Government in Ireland.

END OF FIRST VOLUME.

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